The resignation of the head of the IDF this week, Major General Aharon Haliva, is probably the first domino to fall and marks the way out – also for other senior officials in the security system, the IDF and the Shin Bet.
Maj. Gen. Amos Malka, former head of the AMN, says: “There are certain cases where it is necessary to shake up the organization and to shake up the organization you have to change the leadership. Also in the army, also in the Shin Bet, and the state leadership needs to be replaced as well.” Amos Harel, Haaretz’s military commentator, explains: “There was a colossal failure of the intelligence community here, but first of all of the AMN and the Shin Bet, I think that Aharon Haliva did the right thing.”
“Every commander, every senior officer, every leader who had a hand in the matter should have declared in advance that he takes responsibility and resigned,” asserts Rep. Col. Nira Shefak, former member of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, a survivor of Kfar Gaza. And lawyer Micha Patman says: “The war is over , we are indeed in combat but at a much lower intensity, something that can take a long time. It’s time for the others to start taking responsibility for granted.”
To read the full letter from the Head of Amn, click here
As far as the political arena is concerned – there even those who took responsibility do not necessarily think that they should give up their position. Prime Minister Netanyahu, even half a year after the biggest security failure in Israel’s history – is not even willing to explicitly acknowledge his responsibility.
Even those who have taken responsibility in the political system do not necessarily think that they should give up their position Photo: Noam Rivkin Fenton, Flash 90
At the beginning of the war, after the Chief of Staff and the head of the Shin Bet took responsibility for their part in the Shiva failure in October – Major General Haliva also lined up. “The IDF under its command failed and did not fulfill its most important task, giving warning of the war. As the head of the organization, I bear the ultimate responsibility for this, as I emphasized from the first day of the war,” he said in November. It took another half a year until he officially submitted his letter His resignation, and even then he was criticized mainly for the calculated wording.
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Haliva writes “Amn under my leadership was not up to the task” – do you recognize here some attempt to evade personal responsibility?
Harel: “I think it was worded carefully, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were people who helped him to word it like that, but this is not an escape from responsibility. In the end, he is the first person to take responsibility and take action. This will not prevent him from dealing with the investigative committee later The state is assuming that it will be like this. He will have to answer unsympathetic questions about both his decisions and his failures along the way.”
Many officers have already equipped themselves with lawyers in preparation for the war investigations, and it is likely that Haliva did not write the letter without receiving legal advice – on the assumption that all his statements will also be presented to the investigation committee when it is formed. The lawyer Patman says: “In my understanding of what is being read, this is taking responsibility of the highest degree – ‘AMN did not live up to its mission, I am responsible for AMN, I am the head and first of those responsible.'”
And Shef declares: “I think it should have been the ‘I’ first, and then talk about the system with his permission. That’s how we were brought up, after me.” On Haliva’s call, as an army man, for the establishment of a state committee, she replies: “I think the statement is correct, the call is correct, and if I say that a commander is also a leader, then of course yes, I am in favor.”
“It’s not within his authority, it’s a clear statement, it’s establishing a position,” says Harel. “I think it’s a kind of greeting, he’s waving goodbye to the prime minister, whose entourage abused Haliva throughout the last six months. It is clear that a state commission of inquiry is not Netanyahu’s preferred direction.”
Haliva is the first officer in a line of commanders who will be forced to retire in the near future, among others: Brigadier General Yossi Shariel, commander of Unit 8200; Brigadier General Avi Rosenfeld, commander of the Gaza Division; Major General Yaron Finkelman, commander of the Southern Command; Major General Oded Basiuk, head of the Operations Division, Major General Eliezer Toledano, head of the Strategy Division; The Chief of Staff, Major General Herzi Halevi; Ronan Bar, head of the Shin Bet – they all accepted responsibility and it is clear to all that retirement is a necessary step of personal example, which will enable real change in the units that he signed and aspire to also help repair the damage to public trust.
The next senior officials in the security system who are supposed to retire
“Without a doubt the first to take the action is a little bit freeing the leash for others who can do the same,” agrees Amos Malka. “Only the choice of timing for some of them is more sensitive in light of their role, and there are some who may have to be shown the door.”
This does not satisfy Shepak: “Seven months almost after the seventh of October, I expected that there would be many more who would come out like Haliva. For the entire system, everyone who was a witness to the matter, to come and say ‘I failed, and from now on I am ready to accept a schedule and the next in line to replace me, so that we can the process together’, and I don’t see it. I’m talking about the Shin Bet, I’m talking about the Israel Police in the parts that are relevant to this field, I’m talking about MLA – where are all these senior officials who have to put a key and say ‘I failed, let’s find the good ones And the good ones will replace us.'”
According to Patman, “I don’t think there is anyone who doubts this, that the commander of the command will retire as the commander of the Central Command has already retired, even if they are the best people we have, they are responsible for the incident – it was on their shift, we need people who are not responsible for this incident, who will start to calibrate us again.”
Who should appoint the replacements?
Harel: “On normal days it is the Chief of Staff and the Minister of Defense, but they are also affected by the failures of 7/10. And we are already seeing how on the right Minister Smotrich and others are pulling the rug from under the legitimacy of Halevi to appoint. But there will also be great difficulty for people who strongly hold Mahlevy and think that the Chief of Staff commanded well from 8/10 onwards, this still does not leave him with full legitimacy under these circumstances.” But Patman says: “He can’t, he has to. It’s part of his job.”
Smotrich claimed: Halevi should not appoint the replacements for those who resign Photo: Yonatan Zindel, Flash 90
So the Minister of Finance and the Minister in the Ministry of Defense Smotrich says that it does not make sense in his eyes that the same Chief of Staff who signed the biggest default in Israel’s history, will also be the one to appoint the replacements.
Patman: “So who should determine who their replacements are? Smotrich and Ben Gvir? Who? They have the tools? The skills? The understanding? The knowledge? I don’t think it has been proven until now that anyone in the Israeli government from October 7 deserves to appoint someone in the army Defense of Israel”.
According to Malka, “This Chief of Staff received authority for almost 7 months to conduct the fighting against seven arenas, so he does not have the authority to appoint? Does the Minister of Defense have the authority to appoint? And the prime minister, does he have the authority to appoint the head of the service or the chief of staff when he also bears responsibility? What, we want to bring in a committee called to make the appointments? If I take the statement of Minister Smotritz who says that it cannot be that those who failed will appoint the next in line , so the first minister who needs to go home. Smotrich has never failed in a military operation in his life because he has never been there, he does not understand it and he is mainly a provocateur and he is trying to win votes in the polls.”
What about the Chief of Staff and the head of the Shin Bet? When should they retire?
Harel: “I think the schedule is getting shorter and this need to stay to fix it is less justified than it was in the past. In the case of Ronan Bar there are mitigating issues, namely who appoints him and the manner of the job. One of his main roles is to protect the democratic regime and since the prime minister is the man who brings the appointment to the government – as opposed to the Chief of Staff, whose name is the Minister of Defense – then there is a potential for entanglement here. It could be that suddenly it will be Netanyahu’s ‘Yes Man’ and it will harm our democratic lives on a daily basis, which is still being conducted in a difficult way with many obstacles during this period.”
The question of the identity of the next Chief of Staff, who will replace Halevy in due course, is already stirring up the systems, both the security and the political. Incumbent champions who were previously considered natural candidates for the position – such as Yaron Finkelman and Eliezer Toledano – are now seen as part of the failure; and outside the army there is a consensus around the candidacy of Director General of the Ministry of Defense Major General Eyal Zamir – who was a candidate for the position opposite Halevi, and previously served in a series of senior positions including Deputy Chief of Staff, Commander of the Southern Command and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Military Secretary.
The leading candidate to replace Halevi. Eyal Zamir Photo: IDF spokesman
“Eyal Zamir is a very worthy officer,” notes Malka. “A very thorough, very determined officer, not one who runs to the media to tell what he has done or what he intends to do. I also know Eyal on a personal level, without a doubt he is a worthy officer, also a tankman perhaps for many years (who was not a tank chief of staff).” And Harel says: “He is a person who is accepted by his colleagues and the senior political echelon. Some people put an asterisk on him because he was Netanyahu’s secretary. It should be said that as much as I am impressed, this period did not corrupt his character in any way, you did not see him spill over into the political realms as happened to people around Netanyahu. He is almost a natural candidate under the circumstances, especially when you are looking for the right man under the circumstances to restore, who has the right record but is not affected by the fault itself.”
There will be those who say that Eyal Zamir, who until a moment ago was a flesh and blood of the system, is also part of the conspiracy.
Harel: “Everyone who has been in a political or security position in the past 15 years is part of the concept, and there is still a difference between those who bore responsibility on 7/10 or were involved in the formulation of policy in the year preceding it, and those who were in positions that are not at the heart of decision-making. Anyone who wants To completely wipe the slate clean, a lieutenant colonel can suddenly be brought in and say, ‘He excelled as the commander of the Gaza division, let’s make him chief of staff.’ It’s a big gamble, I would suggest not to gamble despite the temptation to say that everyone will go and we’ll start everything from scratch.”
Vashfak says: “Perhaps this is an opportunity to bring women into the chain of command, who can have an impact. Perhaps the time has come, after we have seen the tank women and the observer women and the 8200 and the commanders and the brigades, and we will grow more command leadership.” She also does not rule out the possibility of a chief of staff.
Many senior officials are expected to vacate their positions. Assessment of the situation of the Defense Ministry forum last year
While regarding the military echelon there is unanimity that the top officials will resign on their initiative, as far as the political arena is concerned the picture is different. Defense Minister Yoav Galant admittedly stated his responsibility but did not specify what steps he intends to take and in contrast, the Prime Minister so far has not even done this required minimum. “After the war we will all have to give answers to difficult questions, including me,” he said again in both Hebrew and English.
And these evasions are especially jarring when we recall the words of opposition leader Netanyahu before the Winograd Commission, which investigated the events of the Second Lebanon War: “I think the role of the security system is secondary,” Netanyahu said. “In my opinion, the responsibility for Israel’s security lies with the assigned captain – the Prime Minister.”
And in the Knesset plenum in 2008, Netanyahu slammed Olmert: “When the failure in the war is so broad and so fundamental, when the price is so high, when entire parts of the country are subject to missile fire every day for weeks, the necessary step that is required is the replacement of the failed prime minister. The life of a nation is not personal survival path of a prime minister but ensuring the existence, security and prosperity of the people of Israel.”
And Fatman says: “We should expect all our leaders, in the military and in politics, to be a personal example. Our politicians are not a personal example to us, the citizens. I expect them to do that. And if the prime minister does not There are ministers and there are Knesset members who can say that, enough.”
Malka estimates that resignation is not imminent: “I think that Defense Minister Galant and Prime Minister Netanyahu will hold on to the altar funds. And I think that this is a terrible failure of value at such a level of responsibility of the top of a state. I will tell you something else, if the intelligence system had managed to locate and issue a warning and they would have prepared a surprise for Hamas And Hamas would have stopped at the level of 0 out of 3,000 who would stand on the stage? Maybe the Minister of Defense would stand on the stage and no one else – ‘I led, I did, I am strong’ Front, whoever is ready to take the credit for something that didn’t happen, should be ready to take responsibility for something terrible that happened. And Mr. Prime Minister, even if you don’t take the responsibility, it’s yours. And you won’t be able to continue, the public won’t let you continue in your position.”
Is there a danger that the political echelon will take advantage of the resignation of senior officials in the military system and the Shin Bet to say “Hey, they took the responsibility and therefore we can continue”?
Harel: “It’s already happening. We recognize from 8.10 more or less a discourse around Netanyahu whose entire purpose is denial – a claim that it’s all a sham by the Shin Bet and the IDF, and this thought that if only they would wake them up at 6:30 or earlier Things would have gone differently. There are many other omissions, but Netanyahu cannot shirk his responsibility for this incident.”
The first government meeting after the surprise attack by Hamas Photo: Haim Tzach, CEO
And Shek says: “Netanyahu is the prime minister, and he needs to go. He needs to go because he was the head responsible for everything that happened here on October 7th.”
I guess there were quite a few people who would say that we would have heard the same texts from you on the sixth of October as well. Even then you wanted to replace the prime minister.
“True. For other reasons, I judge Netanyahu on October 7th. Certainly on the day itself, but also the whole process before, and also the whole process after. And he can’t be there. He can’t be my prime minister.”
“You can’t be my prime minister after making me go through four funerals in one day and not enough for two more. You can’t be my prime minister when I’ve been living in a hotel room for seven months. You can’t be my prime minister when 133 abductees are in Gaza, and the families Theirs is here, I grew up in a country where the citizen is at the center, and everything is built for the citizen, for society, and this is not happening.”
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