PM to Gantz: You led Israel in trying times

Prime Minister Netanyahu meets IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz at the Prime Minister’s Kirya Office. Gantz is officially stepping down on Monday next week.

“I would like to thank you for long years of service for the security of the country, especially during the past four years when you lead the IDF as chief of staff, four unusually challenging years, during a period of unprecedented regional unrest, when countries are collapsing and terror organizations, mostly backed by Iran, are filling in the vacuum, and Iran is trying to suffocate us with a multi-pronged vise grip,” Netanyahu tells Gantz.

“At this time, you led IDF actions, both publicly and clandestinely, professionally, determinedly and responsibly. We worked together in two operations in the Gaza front and other fronts, and on many endeavors of which the public is unaware. I would like to thank you for this excellent service.

“I know you leave behind a military capable of facing all these challenges. One of them is shaping up before our very eyes, when tho[usands of Hezbollah fighters are in Syria, entering also the south of Syria, near our border, on orders from Iran. We are aware of these challenges and the army you leave behind can withstand them.  I would like to thank you for this service and also give you a book that you already know, ‘Memoir of a fighter to his commander’,” says Netanyahu.

Netanyahu gave Gantz the book “Letters of Yoni,” and inscribed it with the dedication ‘To Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, upon your leaving the IDF, memoirs of one fighter to another. With much appreciation of your contribution to the security of Israel and your leadership during a time of trials, Benjamin Netanyahu’,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.