IDF's biggest threat today is internal, warns chief of staff

Any appearance by the chief of staff before the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee routinely produces headlines about some security threat or other facing Israel. It could be anything from Iran to Hezbollah, Hamas or Syria. That is not what happened July 26, however, when Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot appeared before the committee.

Eizenkot devoted most of his briefing to a very different kind of problem. He spoke about how the Israel Defense Forces were under attack by public figures, arguing that the public’s loss of trust in the IDF is now the greatest threat faced by the military. He was speaking about politicians’ involvement in the trial of Elor Azaria, the soldier who shot a neutralized Palestinian attacker in Hebron on March 24 and is now accused of manslaughter.

It turned out that Eizenkot had approached the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Knesset member Avi Dichter, several weeks ago, asking to address the committee about the relationship between Israeli society and its military. Knesset members attending this week’s committee meeting said that he sounded emotionally charged, but most of all, he sounded focused on achieving his objective. From the moment he began to speak, it was clear to everyone that this was no routine appearance by the chief of staff. He was determined to shock his listeners, and he chose to use the platform of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to rouse them and the public at large to point to what he considers the greatest threat faced by the IDF.

For months, the chief of staff has watched as he and the army he heads have become punching bags for right-wing politicians and targets of public disparagement. It is not hard to guess how he felt when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Azaria’s father as if his son were some national hero, not a soldier accused of killing a neutralized terrorist.