PM didn’t delay picking IDF head over Iran stance, defense chief says
Moshe Ya'alon dismisses reports that Netanyahu stalled on tapping Eisenkot as next army chief because he is against striking Tehran's nukes
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not stall on approving Maj. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot as the IDF’s next chief of General Staff over differences on how to deal with Iran’s nuclear threat, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Sunday, rebuffing reports.
Ya’alon said Netanyahu took his time to make a choice in order to get to know the candidates, and did not hesitate over Eisenkot’s reported opposition to a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities barring an immediate existential threat to Israel.
“[These reports] are not even close to the reality,” Ya’alon told Army Radio.
Ya’alon argued that it was the prime minister’s right and duty to be involved in the process of selecting the next IDF commander.
“I personally know the three majors very well. This was not the case with the prime minister and so, it’s appropriate that he met a few times with each candidate,” said Ya’alon, referring to the three candidates for the job, Eisenkot, Yair Golan and Yair Naveh.
According to a Channel 10 report aired Friday night, Eisenkot, the current deputy chief, holds the view that Israel should not strike at Iran “unless the sword is at our throat.”
Eisenkot subscribes to the assessment that Israel must only act against Iran as a last resort, “as do all of Israel’s security chiefs,” the Channel 10 report said, referring to the outgoing chief of General Staff Benny Gantz, current Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, and Shin Bet domestic security chief Yoram Cohen.
Netanyahu, who has vowed that Israel will “stand alone” to stop Iran if necessary, has publicly fumed as world powers negotiated intensively with Iran in recent months, and has demanded the dismantling of Iran’s entire “military nuclear” capability.
The prime minister delayed naming Eisenkot as Gantz’s successor for the past two weeks, the TV report said, in part because he toyed with the idea of finding a candidate with an outlook less similar to that of Gantz.
Netanyahu partly blames Gantz for the sense that Israel emerged “with a tie” from the summer’s 50-day war with Gaza’s Hamas rulers, and looked around for a top officer to succeed Gantz “with more of a knife between his teeth.”
Eisenkot, the report said, is a “moderate” like Gantz, who wants to keep any wars Israel has to fight as short as possible, and aims not to enter conflicts without a clear exit strategy.
Eisenkot was the clear choice as next army chief of both Gantz and Ya’alon, and ultimately Netanyahu decided not to antagonize Ya’alon and to go ahead with the appointment, according to the Channel 10 report.
Eisenkot is set to take up the post on February 15.