Former security chiefs back reserve soldiers threatening to stop volunteer service

Dozens of former senior security officials — including ex-heads of the Israel Defense Forces, Mossad and Shin Bet — send a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling on him to halt the judicial overhaul legislation to allow for renewed talks, while expressing support for reservists who have threatened to stop volunteering in protest.

In the letter, the security chiefs say they hold Netanyahu “directly responsible for the serious harm” to Israel’s security, while accusing him of “completely ignoring the harm to Israeli democracy” from the legislation.

“The legislative process violates the social contract that has existed for 75 years between thousands of reserve commanders and soldiers,” they write, while calling the reservists’ threats “an act of national responsibility for defending Israeli democracy.”

“We expect you to take responsibility,” they add. “We, veterans of Israel’s wars, feel like ‘on the eve of the Yom Kippur War’ and are holding up a bright red stop sign before you and your government.”

The signatories include former IDF chiefs Ehud Barak, Moshe Ya’alon and Dan Halutz; Mossad commanders Nahum Admoni, Efraim Halevy, Shabtai Shavit, Danny Yatom and Tamir Pardo; Shin Bet commanders Carmi Gillon, Yuval Diskin and Nadav Argaman; and several former police commissioners and prison service leaders, among others.