Friday, January 6, 2023

Kohavi said to tell Netanyahu IDF won’t answer in any way to Smotrich and Ben Gvir

Outgoing military chief of staff Aviv Kohavi has reportedly told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other senior coalition politicians that the Israel Defense Forces will not be answerable in any way to ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, even though the two far-right leaders have been given ministerial responsibility for some aspects of the IDF as part of their coalition agreements.

Kohavi regards the handing of IDF-related responsibilities to any minister other than the defense minister as an unacceptable breach of the IDF chain of command, and is determined to ensure that the military does not allow it to happen, Channel 12 news reported Thursday evening.

It is understood, indeed, that Kohavi regards any requirement for the chief of staff to report to anyone other than the defense minister as a breach of the quasi-constitutional Basic Law: The Military, whose Clause 2 (b) specifies: “The Minister in charge of the army on behalf of the Government is the Minister of Defense.”

“The chief of staff will not work with any additional minister, under any circumstances, other than the defense minister,” Channel 12 news quoted Kohavi telling Netanyahu and others in recent days.

“If control of the Border Police is transferred out of the IDF’s command in Judea and Samaria, and out of the command of the blue [national] police [inside Israel], we will deploy soldiers and reservists [rather than the Border Police],” he reportedly added. “Forces operating together will not have two commanders.” READ MORE