In March 2016, Israeli society was shaken by the Elor Azaria incident, in which an IDF soldier shot to death a wounded Palestinian assailant in Hebron. The affair dominated the Israeli agenda for many months. In the summer of 2016, at the height of the scandal, Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot approached the head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Avi Dichter, and asked to appear before the committee. It was no routine request and Dichter consented immediately.
During that turbulent time, the struggle for Azaria's release had become a political issue dividing the left and right. From the beginning, Eizenkot held that Azaria had acted against the basic values of the Israel Defense Forces. He refused to fold even when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly abandoned him and called Azaria’s father to score political points. It was a tense moment for Israeli society, with wide political outrage toward the chief of staff. Demonstrations outside his office included signs and slogans denigrating him and even depicting him as the wicked Haman of the Book of Esther. Politicians led by newly appointed Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beitenu actively campaigned for Azaria’s release.
In this volatile atmosphere, the chief of staff wisely decided to go to the Knesset to say his piece. Eizenkot’s appearance before the committee was charged with emotion and urgency. In his address, he warned the committee that political attacks on the IDF posed a threat not only to the Israeli military, but to Israeli society at large. Eizenkot is not known for his speeches, but in his focused and direct way, he got his message across. He used the opportunity to express his concern for the continued existence of the most Israeli institution of all: the people’s army.
As the episode unfolded, Eizenkot refused to succumb to the prevailing mood on the right. He would not pardon Azaria (in his final interviews before leaving the post, he described Azaria as an “antihero”) and stood resolute against a barrage of vicious political attacks. Cabinet members spoke out against him last summer and claimed that his policies in Gaza had failed. Likud Knesset members like David Bitan accused him of costing Israel deterrence capabilities.
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