Defense Minister Yoav Galant said last week that the IDF is now fighting in seven arenas. Those who met with senior members of the General Staff over the weekend got the impression that the minister had omitted one additional, particularly significant arena that now occupies the army: the Israeli government.
Thursday night's cabinet meeting, which was meant to deal with the "day after" issue, left deep and deeply disturbing residues. A group of ministers took advantage of it to crudely lash out at IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy over his intention to establish investigative teams for the events that led to the outbreak of the war on 7 October.
Cabinet meeting (archive), photo: Ariel Hermony, Ministry of Defense
His attempts to explain that this was a professional and vital process aimed at contributing to the improvement of the army's performance during the war were unsuccessful; The ministers hinted that this was a plot against the government, and pointed to the individuals appointed to investigate – headed by former IDF Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz – as proof of this.
Essence and style
As always, you have to separate essence from style. On the essential side, it is the duty of the military to investigate itself in order to learn from its mistakes, and in this case there were colossal mistakes that require lessons to be learned. The military does not need permission from the political echelon to investigate, nor does it need permission to identify the teams that will be investigated. If there is criticism, it should be the opposite: why did it take the chief of staff three months to appoint these investigative teams, and whether an earlier appointment would not have yielded conclusions that could have helped the course of the war.
These investigations are supposed to deal with what happened inside the army, not at the political level. At the maximum, it will deal with information that was or was not transferred to the political echelon before and during Black Sabbath, in order to indicate processes that need to be improved or fine-tuned. Here, too, this is an elementary matter: Israel is at war in the south and on the verge of war in the north, and if the conduct in the political-security interface creaks, it is imperative to strengthen and lubricate what is necessary to prevent future mishaps.
On the stylistic side, the chief of staff made a mistake when he did not inform the political echelon in advance of his intention to establish the investigative teams (updating does not mean asking for approval), and many in the IDF leadership were also surprised by the publication of the intention. It can be assumed that he did not do so because he feared exactly what had happened: a coordinated, ugly attack carried out against the chief of staff during wartime.
Netanyahu (archive), photo: AP
The IDF is convinced that this ambush was planned, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is responsible for it. They point to Minister Dudi Amsalem as evidence of this. Amsalem is neither a cabinet member nor a cabinet observer, and he was not supposed to attend the meeting. Nevertheless, he participated in it, and in his elegant best way punched the chief of staff.
And not only him: Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, and Miri Regev, who as IDF Spokesperson, was a signatory to the announcement announcing the appointment of dozens of similar investigative teams appointed by Second Lebanon War Chief of Staff Dan Halutz.
Ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Smotrich was astonished when, in a tweet, he attacked the leaks from the meeting, and then detailed at length what was discussed. Ben-Gvir attacked Mofaz's appointment and taught Until We Live in the Upside-Down World: A convicted criminal who did not serve in the IDF a day in his life attacks someone who devoted decades of his life to state security and is considered an authority on security matters (and who religiously avoided appearances at demonstrations before the war).
Double lie
Some government officials were also quick to attack that the son of one of the future interrogators is a senior IDF official who is himself supposed to be interrogated and may be harmed by the investigation. This is a double lie: both because the son (who commands an elite unit) is not supposed to be interrogated, and all his actions on and after Black Saturday are examples of initiative and striving for victory, and also because his next job has long been assured. Still, it seems that every possible restraint has been allowed in an effort to save the government and its leader, and as evidence, the prime minister's son shared such a post on his Telegram page.
The prime minister remained silent both during and after the meeting, further distancing himself from the security leadership at a time when harmony or at least minimal collegiality in decision-making is required. In his conduct, he further pushed Ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot to the crossroads of deciding whether to remain in the government.
Quiet partners. Eizenkot and Gantz, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
It seems that the main reason stopping them is their fear of leaving the IDF and Shin Bet alone, and even more so – leaving decision-making in the hands of those whom they call dangerous and irresponsible pyromaniacs.
The butter smeared on their heads
The fate of the investigations has not yet been decided. Halevy intends to hold them, although it is unclear when the teams will begin their work. The IDF claims that these investigations do not harm the work of a future commission of inquiry that will examine the failures of the war, or the work of the State Comptroller, who has already announced his intention to begin a long series of examinations.
The political echelon, on the other hand, continues to run away from the issue like fire, just as it has so far escaped responsibility. In doing so, he only further emphasizes the butter smeared on his head. The fact that he chooses to attack the chief of staff, who claimed responsibility for his failure, shows once again that there are those who are still alive on 6 October, and have not internalized that the enemy is not Halevy, but Hamas, against which Halevi is leading the IDF.
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