Col. Hezi Nehama was removed from reserve service after publicly criticizing the IDF’s activities in Gaza. Nehama was not in uniform when he voiced his criticism and spoke after having commanded many operations in the Gaza Strip.
In recent weeks, several IDF units attempted to call up Nehama for reserve service, but they were all rejected by an official in the General Staff who decided to suspend him from the reserves.
The reason for the General Staff’s targeting of Col. Nehama was most likely his collaboration with Major General Giora Eiland in writing the “Generals’ Plan,” calling for the evacuation of all Arabs from the northern Gaza Strip, which should be annexed permanently as part of the State of Israel.
Nehama, a graduate of the pre-military academy in Eli whose alumni serve in secondary command positions across the IDF, is the father of eight who lives in Eli.
Last June, Nehama, who was still a career officer at the time, published a harsh criticism in the Israeli media about the army’s management of the war. He said he was forced to publish his criticism after trying to meet with Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, but their meeting was postponed several times.
Nehama claimed that the IDF was achieving extraordinary feats at the tactical level, but these achievements did not translate into strategic advantage. Nehama claimed that the raids the IDF was using would not lead to the defeat of Hamas and that they condemned the IDF to repeated raids in the same areas where it was fighting and where Hamas was recovering.
Another issue Nehama criticized was Hamas’s control over humanitarian aid – which brought hundreds of millions of dollars into the organization’s pockets and allowed the terrorist organization to recruit thousands more terrorists and pay salaries to the fighting terrorists.
Following his remarks, Nehama resigned from the IDF to establish a forum which was later called the “Forum of Commanders and Fighters in the Reserves.” The main goal of the forum was to demand that the General Staff abandon the concept that Hamas is deterred by Israeli military might––infiltrating the IDF brass since the 1990s––and return to the concept of classic decisiveness.
Nehama pointed to a growing disconnect between the general staff and the tactical level – a disconnect that was also reflected in a survey conducted in which over fifty percent of field commanders expressed a lack of confidence in the Chief of Staff’s ability to continue leading the IDF to achieve the war’s goals. It seems that these criticisms, although made when Nechama was not in active reserve service, caused officials in the General Staff to decide to suspend him from reserve service.
On November 7, Chief Halevi exacted his revenge and got rid of Nehama altogether.
