Eisenkot: Netanyahu’s national security decisions were never political

Following the changing-of-the-guard ceremony at IDF headquarters a short time ago, in which outgoing chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot formally handed the reins of the IDF to the incoming army chief Aviv Kochavi, Eisenkot said neither he nor Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ever made a national security decision for political reasons.

At a meeting of the General Staff of the army at the Kirya base in Tel Aviv, Eisenkot offers his parting thoughts to the army’s top brass.

Known as a man of few words, Eisenkot, who has referred to the army in the past as a unifying force in Israeli society, says, “my recommendations [to the government] were shaped by Israel’s security needs. There were never any political concerns behind my decisions, nor were there in the prime minister’s considerations” when it came to national security, he affirms.