Netanyahu slams IAF letter signatories as ‘fringe extremists’

After the Israeli Air Force chief said he would dismiss any active reservists who signed a letter criticizing the ongoing war against Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expresses support for the decision.

“Refusal to serve is refusal to serve, even if it’s only hinted at in whitewashed language,” Netanyahu says in a statement. “Statements that weaken the IDF and strengthen our enemies in a time of war are unforgivable.”

The signatories to the letter say they are not calling for refusal to serve, but are demanding that the government get the hostages freed even at the expense of immediately ending the war against Hamas, and they claim the current fighting is politically motivated.

Netanyahu says the signatories “are a group of fringe extremists who are trying once again to break Israeli society from within. They tried to do it before October 7 and Hamas interpreted the refusal calls as a weakness.”

Amid the mass protests against the government’s judicial overhaul plan in 2023, several groups of reservists, including in the IAF, issued statements that they would refuse to serve under a regime they no longer viewed as democratic. The IDF has said, however, that Hamas had planned the attack at least a year in advance.

Netanyahu accuses the signatories of “acting toward one goal — bringing down the government. They don’t represent the soldiers or the public.”