(Adnkronos) – Promotions of high-ranking officers of the Israeli forces at the center of a clash in Israel between the IDF Chief of Staff and the Defense Minister. A new dispute between the political and military leadership. The Israeli press writes about it and immediately criticism comes from all sides from opposition leader Yair Lapid.
Minister Israel Katz, according to the newspaper Haaretz, publicly challenged the promotions approved by IDF chief Eyal Zamir, already under attack for his opposition to the Netanyahu government’s line on Gaza. According to Katz’s office, they were decided without any coordination and therefore without the minister’s consent, and the latter will not approve those names, insisting on the need for coordination on all future appointments.
The IDF published the list with the names of those promoted and the military claims the appointment of commanders from the rank of colonel upwards as a prerogative of the IDF chief. The decisions, it is emphasized, are up to the Chief of Staff and are then submitted to the Defense Minister for final approval.
Among the names at the center of the dispute that has been going on for hours is that of Brigadier General Barak Hiram, who should become the head of the Operations Division after being at the center of controversy for the management of the response to the October 7, 2023 attack in Israel. An internal IDF investigation concluded that he operated “professionally” in a “difficult and complex” situation.
Katz is accused of “blackmail” by military sources quoted by the Israeli news website Ynet. According to rumors gathered by the portal, Zamir’s office would have tried for about a month – but without success – to arrange a meeting with Katz to discuss the appointments of brigadier generals. For the military, Ynet reads, there would be a link between the political leadership’s request to the IDF to accelerate plans for Gaza City authorized last week by the Israeli security cabinet and the approval of the appointments, as an “unprecedented extortion move”. And sources claim Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is behind it all.
Among the Israeli press’s reconstructions of the ‘clash’, the reaction of opposition leader Yair Lapid was not long in coming. “In this crazy government, even a simple event, like the appointment of IDF officers, does not happen without leaks, quarrels, slander and statements in the middle of the night – he wrote on X – This is not how you run a country, this is not how you lead an army”.
