The pressure on the prime minister from the IDF command is growing: Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Chief of the General Staff Herzi Alevi intend to raise with Netanyahu the question of the destructive impact of the judicial reform on the army’s combat capability.
At the end of March, Yoav Galant took this step publicly, demanding to stop the reform and start negotiations to prevent decay in the armed forces. After Netanyahu tried to fire him, Galant stopped acting openly, apparently preferring not to destroy a brilliant political career.
Against the background of new statements by reservists about refusing to serve, Galant and Alevi held a meeting at the General Staff today. They stated that the “refusal” causes enormous damage to the army, especially the air force and the special operations department of the military intelligence AMAN.
The meeting on the state of emergency in the army was attended by the commanders of the Air Force and the Navy, the commander of the AMAN, the chief of the operational department of the General Staff, the chief of the personnel department of the IDF and other senior officers. All of them, in turn, provided the Minister of Defense with data on the protest actions of reservists in units and divisions of the troops.
The purpose of the meeting at the General Staff was to find out whether the IDF is approaching a critical point of reduced combat readiness due to reservists’ refusal to serve.
The open letter of 200 officers and soldiers of the elite troops – the special forces of the General Staff, in which they warned against the refusal of reserve service in the event of the adoption of judicial reform laws, caused particular concern.
The hidden refusal to serve is also alarming: there are many reservists who did not sign any appeals or declarations, but told their comrades in the units that they would not go to the meetings if the law on the withdrawal of “ilat a-svirut” was passed. The participants of the meeting expressed the need to convey the real picture in the army to the head of the government.
