Lapid assails ‘crazy government’ over bickering with IDF on appointments

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams the government’s handling of the latest round of contested IDF promotions, stating that “this is not how you run a country, this is not how you lead an army.”

“In this crazy government, even a basic event like appointing officers in the IDF doesn’t go by without leaks, fights, slander and night-time announcements,” Lapid says in an overnight statement.

Katz has publicly attacked IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir over a round of senior appointments the latter has announced, saying this wasn’t coordinated with him and goes against established protocol. The military has countered that the normal course of events is the army holding internal discussions, with the defense minister later approving or rejecting them.

But unofficially, military sources cited by several Hebrew media outlets allege that Zamir has attempted for around a month to schedule a meeting with Katz regarding the round of appointments, without success.

A source cited by Ynet claims that in an act of “unprecedented blackmail,” the issue is being linked by Katz to the government’s demand that the military prepare for the takeover of Gaza City, as approved last week by the cabinet despite reported objections by Zamir and other top defense officials.

Sources are cited as estimating that while Katz is sending out the scathing messages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is actually behind them.