From the Liveblog of
Saturday, June 14, 2025
Far-right minister tweets and deletes post slamming IDF reservists who refuse to serve, amid Iran missile attack
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Amid missile attacks from Iran, far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu tweets and deletes a post on X slamming IDF reservists who refuse to serve.
“I sent this photo to the attention of one of the pilots who led the IDF’s refusal movement,” he writes in a now-deleted tweet, describing an attached image as showing “a squadron commander who attacked in Iran. Kippah sticking out, back straight, true heroism.”
“I asked him a simple question: Does he think it’s possible to win a war — certainly with Iran — with the spirit of refusal that he was a part of? I also asked if he still thinks we were wrong when we expelled from the force those who chose to abandon their brothers during combat. I was hoping to hear a word of regret. He didn’t really respond,” Eliyahu writes.
This March, an Israeli Air Force reservist navigator was “permanently” dismissed from the military after he posted on social media that he would not show up for reserve duty because of the resumption of fighting in the Gaza Strip. While the incident was seen as isolated, it harked back to the widespread anti-government protests in recent years, when hundreds of reservists threatened not to show up for duty, including many in the Air Force.
In April, a group of close to 1,000 veterans of the Israeli Air Force, the vast majority of them in retirement, published a letter demanding the return of the hostages in Gaza, even if it comes at the cost of ending the war against Hamas entirely.
After the letter was published, the military moved to dismiss every active duty reservist who signed it, saying soldiers cannot use the “Israeli Air Force brand” to protest political matters.
The letter did not call for a general refusal to serve, as had been previously reported, but instead urged the government to prioritize the release of hostages over the continuation of the war in Gaza, which the signatories argued now serves “political and personal interests” rather than national security.
The Times of Israel Community.