Security officials tell TV network PM trying to shift blame onto them for harm to IDF
Netanyahu said to ignore request by IDF chief to condemn attacks on military brass by coalition allies over impact on readiness; PM said to express concern at Sunday briefing
The security establishment believes that by allowing repeated attacks on top military brass, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to shift responsibility onto them over the current harm to the state of military readiness caused by some reservists’ refusals to carry out their duties in protest of the coalition’s controversial judicial overhaul legislation, Hebrew media reported Monday.
According to Channel 12, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi urged Netanyahu at a briefing on military readiness on Sunday to release a statement condemning recent attacks by coalition members and others on military chiefs over the damage to national security caused by the overhaul push, and was surprised when the premier did not do so, the network reported, citing unnamed security officials.
“Netanyahu’s attacks on the heads of the army and the retreat of those surrounding him are an attempt to put the responsibility for what is happening on the shoulders of the Israel Defense Forces,” Channel 12 quoted an official as saying.
Earlier Monday, the prime minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu, shared a Facebook post that said Halevi “will be remembered as the most failed and destructive chief of staff in the history of the IDF” for not cracking down on the reservists. The post was deleted from Netanyahu’s page around half an hour after it was shared.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant swiftly defended Halevi in a tweet, praising him as “one of the most excellent officers that I’ve met in all my years in the IDF and security establishment.”
Without explicitly condemning the post shared by his son, Netanyahu tweeted that the country faced “big challenges,” and that he was “working day and night together with the defense minister, the IDF chief of staff, senior IDF officers and security forces to jointly guarantee Israel’s security under all circumstances.”
On Sunday, military heads were said to have warned Netanyahu that the army would really begin to feel the negative impact of the reservists’ protest in another two weeks, according to the Kan public broadcaster. The meeting with military generals Sunday also included Gallant and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi.
The brass told Netanyahu that IDF readiness would worsen in the case of a constitutional crisis, harm to the IDF’s international standing, or the passage of a Basic Law that would expand draft exemptions for yeshiva students, Kan reported.
Channel 12 reported Monday that an unnamed person in the briefing heard Netanyahu express concern that, although no planned operation has been called off due to the refusals, this scenario may occur in the future. An unnamed official was said to tell Halevi to document such meetings, as the information may be required eventually.
The TV report said the security establishment was “stunned” by the recent attacks on the military from coalition lawmakers who were irate last month after over 1,000 members of the Israeli Air Force announced they would be halting their volunteer reserve duty in protest of the government’s effort to radically overhaul the judiciary.
Furthermore, as the government advanced the first major bill of its judicial overhaul late last month, more than 10,000 reservists who frequently show up for duty on a voluntary basis said they would no longer do so. The reservists warned they would not be able to serve in an undemocratic Israel, which some charge the country will become if the government’s overhaul plans are realized.
Most Israelis who complete their mandatory military national service are required to attend annual reserve duty, but those who’ve served in special units — including pilots — are expected to volunteer to continue carrying out the same duties while in the reserves, a commitment they usually take upon themselves. Due to the nature of their positions, special forces troops and pilots in reserves show up more frequently for training and missions.
As the reservists’ revolt has spread to some of the armed forces’ most elite units and divisions, military leaders have struggled to stay sanguine on the issue publicly, with the IDF’s spokesman admitting last week that “there is limited harm in some areas.”
The prime minister’s right-wing and religious-backed coalition has rejected the reservists’ protests as a dangerous and unprecedented form of political blackmail by the military. Some coalition lawmakers suggested the protest was tantamount to an attempted military coup.
The military reportedly warned Netanyahu at least four times of the security consequences of his coalition’s judicial overhaul plans, the latest arriving days before the Knesset approved the first piece of controversial legislation, the reasonableness law, in late July.
On Monday, Channel 13 also reported that Netanyahu warned top military brass in the briefing Sunday that information they share at an upcoming meeting this week of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee will be leaked — remarks some in the security establishment felt were an attempt to prevent them from providing the committee with the full picture on readiness and deterrence.
Senior government officials told Channel 13 Monday that the full picture was also being concealed from security cabinet ministers and that two ministers who were present at the cabinet meeting said that members who asked for details on the state of IDF readiness were “stopped” by the prime minister.
The Kan public broadcaster reported that among the generals present at Sunday’s meeting was Air Force head Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, who on Friday warned reserves pilots who have declared they would no longer show up for volunteer duty that the state of the force’s readiness was “worsening.”
During his sitdown with reservists Friday, Bar said that the air force’s flight school, training apparatus and operational capabilities had been damaged by the protest, according to a report in the Ynet news website and that the impact would be felt next month, when large drills are planned.
The comments, some of which were confirmed by the IDF, led Netanyahu to convene Gallant, Halevi and Bar for a reported dressing down by videoconference Friday evening.
“It looks like the army is running the country,” Netanyahu reportedly exploded at Halevi and Bar, according to unsourced reports carried by Channels 12 and 13.
“You’re damaging our deterrent credibility,” he was said to have shouted. “Why are you putting out headlines like this?” The Prime Minister’s Office later denied he had raised his voice.
Both Halevi and Bar refused requests to walk back comments on the army’s readiness, according to the unsourced reports.
The reported dressing down adds to what some analysts believe is a growing crisis of faith between the military and political leadership.
Neither Gallant nor the IDF released a readout of Sunday’s briefing, which came after the military, Shin Bet security service and Mossad all unanimously denied a Channel 12 news report that day that their chiefs were considering publicly detailing the worsening status of those bodies’ capabilities next month.
The report said that they were considering such a move after Netanyahu last week was said to deny a request for the information by some cabinet ministers, fearing it would be leaked to the public.
Following the Sunday meeting, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accused Netanyahu of attempting to shift responsibility for the damage to the nation’s security onto the military.
“The damage to the IDF’s fitness is the direct result of one thing — the destructive regime coup being led by Netanyahu’s government,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, calling for the legislation to be halted.
