PM names Col. Avi Blot his new military secretary, ending months of search

Head of Commando Brigade to replace Brig. Gen. Eliezer Toledano as bridge between IDF and Netanyahu; he will be promoted to brigadier general

Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.

Col. Avi Blot, head of the IDF Commando Brigade. (Israel Defense Forces)
Col. Avi Blot, head of the IDF Commando Brigade. (Israel Defense Forces)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named Col. Avi Blot his new military secretary on Tuesday, following months of searching for an officer to fill the position, the army said.

Blot, who currently leads the army’s Commando Brigade, will take over for Brig. Gen. Eliezer Toledano, who has held the position for nearly three years.

The prime minister’s military secretary serves as a go-between, passing messages from the Israel Defense Forces directly to the premier and vice versa. The job is often seen as a steppingstone for higher positions within the military.

Last year, it was announced that Toledano, who has served as Netanyahu’s military secretary since September 2015, would be taking over as the new head of the IDF’s Gaza Division.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, speaks with his military secretary, Brig. Gen. Eliezer Toledano, right, on his way to a visit in the Etzion bloc in the West Bank on November 23, 2015, following a spate of terror attacks in the area. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Netanyahu interviewed a number of candidates for the position of military secretary in recent months, including the controversial Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter, but ultimately settled on Blot.

In a statement, the IDF said that the prime minister’s decision was made “in coordination with the defense minister and the [IDF] chief of staff.”

In June, Blot was called to face a disciplinary hearing after a number of sensitive military documents were stolen from his vehicle earlier in the month.

However, Blot was cleared of criminal charges, as the documents had been left behind accidentally and did not contain significant classified information, the military said in a statement.

On June 14, Blot parked his car during a field trip with other senior officers, leaving behind his bag. The officer remembered to take his pistol and an encrypted military cellphone from the bag, but forgot that it also held a number of sensitive documents, the army investigation found.

It is a violation of army regulations to leave classified documents unsupervised.

“Since the officer did not deliberately leave the documents in his car, and in light of the contents of the documents that were stolen, the [military advocate general] decided that the incident will be dealt with in a disciplinary hearing before the head of the Central Command, Maj. Gen. Nadav Padan,” the army said.

The theft occurred a day before Netanyahu summoned Blot for a surprise interview for the job of military secretary.

Some had speculated that the document theft would negatively affect Blot’s chances for the position, as other senior officers have faced substantial punishments, including dismissal, for losing classified information or allowing it to be stolen.

Former Manpower Directorate’s head Maj. Gen. Hagai Topolanski resigned from the army in December 2016 after a laptop containing classified information was stolen from his home. The year before, Col. Ilan Levy was summarily dismissed from his position after classified documents were stolen from his car, where he had accidentally left them. The documents were later located.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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