Israel Hayom has learned that there are at least two more fighter squadrons whose reservists are considering taking a step similar to the one taken by Squadron 69, one of them at Ramat David Air Force Base and the other at Tel Nof Air Force Base.
"Each squadron has its own dynamics," said a source familiar with the details yesterday (Monday), who further explained that the squadrons' WhatsApp groups are buzzing.
Not for nothing, the commander of the Air Force, Colonel Tomer Bar, is the most concerned officer these days at the IDF General Staff, and the only one who is openly trying to deal with the problem so far. He spoke with the pilots in a reply, and in a letter he sent to them last Friday, and was revealed for the first time In "Israel Hayom", he called on them on the one hand to continue to reach the squadrons, and on the other hand he wrote to them that they are "the defenders of the land, I will not lend a hand to painting your image unfairly".
The most worried officer these days.
Tomer Bar, photo: Yossi Zeliger
It should be noted that there are also voices that call on the top of the IDF to take a hard hand against the refuseniks, just as the army took against refuseniks 18 years ago, during the disengagement plan. So the appropriate military response to refuseniks was to put them in military prison. There are also some veteran reservists, supporters of the government's measures, who say in the last few days that they will come to replace the reservists who refuse if necessary on the day of the order, but as of this time, these are mostly older people, without Air Force pilot training.
In a sort of criticism of the refusing pilots, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted yesterday on his Twitter account: "When the reserves are called, we always show up. We are one people."
The Minister of Defense, Yoav Galant, also published his own message last night, according to which: "The situation today requires that we speak, and quickly. We face heavy and complex external challenges, any call for refusal harms the functioning of the IDF and its ability to carry out its tasks."
"I understand your great pain, but without the IDF there is no existence for the State of Israel." Gadi Eisenkot, photo: Eric Sultan
The former Chiefs of Staff, now in the opposition, also came out against the calls of the pilots' refusal. The former Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz, said: "I call on the reservists and the regulars - continue to serve, show up under any conditions.
To defend the country with protests and to defend it with sorties.
Don't give in to the refusal, with all the pain." The former Chief of Staff, Gadi Eisenkot, also told the reserve pilots in Squadron 69: "I understand your great pain, but without the IDF there is no existence for the State of Israel.
We have to keep him out of the important and just struggle."
Pilots in the Israel Defense Forces who are taking part in the demonstrations, and some of them are even threatening to stop flying, told "Israel Hayom" yesterday that it is likely that if those 69 pilots are called to the reserves in the coming month they will arrive, but if they do not arrive for their weekly reserve days, it is not at all certain that they will be eligible For the next attack even if called upon
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