Inside the IDF's Feuding Establishment
The Economist reports:
YESTERDAY'S formal passing of the baton from the outgoing Israeli Defence Force chief of staff, Lieutenant General Gaby Ashkenazi, to his successor, Major General Benny Gantz, is unlikely to mark the end of a very public squabble between past and present generals that is extraordinary even by Israeli standards. Having just returned to England from a spending a week in Israel, I am still trying to disentangle what lies behind the apparently poisonous and no-holds-barred personal rivalries at the heart of the country’s defence establishment.
Without going into too much detail, the first choice of the defence minister, Ehud Barak (backed by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu), to succeed Mr Ashkenazi was Major General Yoav Galant. There were rumours that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Barak wanted Mr Galant because he was the most gung-ho of the top brass about attacking Iran’s nuclear installations, something Mr Ashkenazi had feared would trigger a new Middle East war. But Mr Galant also became a controversial pick for other reasons, after allegations were made against him involving the seizure of public land near his home in Moshav Amicam. A fortnight ago, after a thorough investigation, the attorney-general concluded that his findings raised "significant legal difficulties" for the decision to appoint Mr Galant. Mr Netanyahu and Mr Barak decided to drop Mr Galant and replace him with the more consensual figure of Mr Gantz, who had been deputy chief of the IDF until his retirement in November.
Other controversies surrounding the appointment of a new chief of staff have been gleefully reported in the local press.
Click here to read more.
