The IDF spokesman announced on Thursday the promotion of five senior commanders he said had stood out during the war with Hamas. The appointments were made by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Col. Herzi Halevi, with the approval of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was informed of the appointments close to their announcement.
SMOTRICH VS. THE MACHINE
אני שב ואומר,
ללא קשר לזהות הקצינים, מינויי אלופי צה”ל שיובילו את התיקון של הצבא לאחר המחדל לא יכול לתבצע על ידי הרמטכ”ל שחתום על המחדל הצבאי.
זה לא לגיטימי.
לא כך מתקנים.
לא כך מחזירים את האמון.לא כך ממנים צמרת חדשה לצבא שתפיסותיו צריכות תיקון ותחלופה. pic.twitter.com/feAQUjktIa
— בצלאל סמוטריץ’ (@bezalelsm) May 2, 2024
An Israeli version of Cato the Elder, who ended all his speeches in the Roman Senate with “Carthago delenda est,” or “Carthage must be destroyed,” Religious Zionism Chairman and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reiterated his objection to the very idea of Halevi and Gallant making the appointments:
I keep saying that regardless of the identity of the officers, the appointments of IDF generals who will lead the fixing of the army after the failure cannot be made by the Chief of Staff whose signature is on the bottom line of the military default.
It’s not legitimate.
That’s not how things are fixed.
This is not how trust is restored.
This is not the way to appoint a new leadership for the army whose concepts need correction and replacement.
The time has come for the prime minister, who bears the ultimate responsibility, to take the reins, put the defense minister and the chief of staff in place, and stop this scandal.
MORE OF THE SAME
The most notable appointment is of Lt. Col. Shlomi Binder to replace the head of Military Intelligence, Major General Aharon Haliva, who resigned following his devastating failure to foresee the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Like Haliva, as the head of the IDF Operations Division, Binder is directly involved in the failure of October 7 and is expected to be at the center of investigations regarding his role as head of the division that collapsed during the first hours of the invasion of the Gaza envelope, abandoning the Israeli residents.
In 2022, when he was leaving his post as Commander of the 91st Division to become head of operations, Binder told Haaretz Hezbollah “has tools that they did not have in 2006, chief among them a plan and the ability to attack in our territory. They have increased the array of fire aimed at our rear and improved their ability to defend themselves against an IDF maneuver. The Chief of Staff defines them as a terrorist army. One of the clear signs of the transition from guerrillas to an army is the development of broad offensive formations, and not just localized defense and offense. This is not necessarily bad for us. The more they become an army and produce regular patterns, the more they create targets for us to attack. An army needs to move and gather forces, it leaves behind traces.”
ONE OF US
Brigadier General Avi Bluth, who currently commands the Judea and Samaria Division, will replace outgoing Central Command Commander General Yehuda Fox. This may be the only one of the five appointments the right is cheering. For one thing, Fox dedicated much of his stint as the dictator in charge of the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria to a campaign of harassment against his subjects. Bluth, on the other hand, grew up in Halamish, a.k.a. Neveh Tzuf, a Jewish settlement in the southwestern Samarian hills, just north of Ramallah. But wait, there’s more…
Bluth graduated from the Bnei David Pre-Military Preparatory School in Eli, which has been vilified by former defense minister Moshe Yaalon who called for the state to shut it down – never mind that 20 of its alumni have just been killed fighting for Israel in Gaza.
Does Bluth’s national religious upbringing promise better relations between himself and the Jews of Judea and Samaria? Not really, seeing as the retiring General Fox also grew up in a national religious home and graduated from a Haredi yeshiva.
MORE FALAFELS* ON PARADE
Another controversial appointment is of Lt. Col. Dvid Bar Khalifa, commander of the 36th Armored Division, as head of the IDF HR, pulled him away from decision-making in future campaigns.
תת אלוף דן גולדפוס שנלחם בתיוזה רבה בעזה ובאומץ רב אומר את האמת ישר בין העיניים לכל הפוליטיקאים הקטנים העוסקים בפוליטיקה קטנה, כשישנם חטופים וכל יום נהרגים ונפצעים לוחמים.???pic.twitter.com/G21Nb4kVSQ
— Batya Cohen, PhD (@BatyaCohen1) March 13, 2024
Brigadier General Dan Goldfuss will become Commander of the Northern Squadron and the ground maneuver formation. During the Gaza war, Goldfuss commanded the 98th Paratroopers Division, establishing operational control over key areas of the southern Gaza Strip, especially Khan Younis.
In March 2024, Goldfuss called for Israel’s leaders to be “worthy of the reservists who did not care what side they were from, and fought side by side.” His attack on the political echelon in the middle of a war caused a storm in Israel and he is also expected to appear before a future committee investigating the Hamas attack and its aftermath, but the questionable events in which he was directly involved took place after October 7.
Brig. Gen. Aviad Dagan, to become head of ICT and network environment defense, also wears a kippah. An Air Force man, he fought in the Gaza war as a combat navigator in the 201st Squadron. Dagan has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Bar-Ilan University, a master’s degree in law from Bar-Ilan University, and a master’s degree in national security from the National Security University in Washington, DC.
