IDF spokesperson denounces politicians’ ‘cheap’ attacks on army chief

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin says some attacks by politicians on the IDF chief of staff have been “cheap,” after Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir issued a letter against a new law freezing the arrest of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers.

“This is his job as chief of staff to express his professional position in the name of the IDF,” Defrin says on Nadav Perry’s “All In” podcast.

“And then there is criticism, some of it relevant and some not relevant and significant,” he says.

“When you criticize the chief of staff in an irrelevant manner, some of it being cheap in a certain way, you harm the entire army,” Defrin continues.

“The chief of staff is not Eyal Zamir; he’s the chief of the general staff, he’s this establishment, and he represents the company commander, the battalion commander, the soldier in Golani, and the soldier in the tank, on the warship, and the pilot. This is the chief of staff; if you harm him, you harm them,” he says.

Earlier today, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri lashed out at Zamir over his strong opposition to the draft dodger bill, accusing the military chief of trying “to help the left-wing bloc during an election campaign.”