Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi went into open war on Wednesday over the handling of issues relating to the October 7 disaster as well as future senior IDF appointments.
Katz replaced Yoav Gallant as defense minister in early November and since then has repeatedly challenged Halevi’s authority, with the IDF chief mostly playing defense until now.
However, on Wednesday, Katz publicly sided with State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman against Halevi over his probe into the IDF regarding October 7 while also needling the IDF chief about finishing the military’s own probes in the next three weeks.
Unlike Katz’s past moves, in which Halevi retreated and signaled he would bend his head in deference to his civilian boss, at least on a formal basis, on Wednesday, Halevi slammed Katz for sending public messages to the media about sensitive, complex national security issues instead of discussing them privately behind closed doors.
Further, while Halevi has said that he will try to finish the IDF probes into October 7 within three weeks, he seemed to hint on Wednesday that this might not be possible due to the ongoing war distracting the focus of the various commanders needed to finish the probes.
He made it clear that he viewed ongoing military operations as a higher goal than even following Katz’s deadline regarding the October 7 probes or complying with all probe requests of the comptroller.
This all happens against the backdrop of the idea that once the probe results are released, the pressure on Halevi and many of his top generals to resign will grow significantly.
Many observers believe that pushing Halevi and other generals out of office is the true goal of Katz, acting at the behest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, so that he can blame the October 7 disaster more firmly on Halevi and the IDF and gain more complete control of the military.
In contrast, Halevi has dropped signals that he may not resign before there is a hostage exchange deal, something he believes should have occurred this past summer.
Further, Halevi’s delay in announcing the probe results could be another way to pressure Netanyahu to make the hostage deal with Hamas. Some observers have also said he felt no rush to issue the IDF’s probe results as long as Netanyahu refused to even allow the start of a probe of his own actions on October 7.
Moreover, Halevi has viewed the comptroller as a Netanyahu partisan whose goal is to blame the IDF for October 7 more than Netanyahu, another reason he has slow-walked complying with that probe.
Clashes with government
Already on Tuesday, Englman publicly accused Halevi and the IDF of continuing to undermine his probe.
Although Englman complimented the IDF for finally granting his office interviews with top commanders relating to October 7, he complained that the IDF was trying to influence their testimony by having hgh command representatives present at each meeting.
In addition, the comptroller accused the IDF of secretly recording these meetings and then refusing to hand over copies of the recordings once the comptroller realized the military was recording the interviews.
Finally, the comptroller said that some officers had refused to answer questions, saying they had been given legal advice not to cooperate.
On Wednesday, the IDF responded that some officers had gotten their own legal counsel from the IDF public defender but that the high command had not interfered.
The military did not specifically address why it had secretly recorded interviews, refused to provide copies of the recordings, and why it was sending representatives to every meeting, though it did deny any attempt to influence the testimony of its officers.
Rather, the IDF seemed to imply that it simply wanted to know everything that its officers said for its own records.
Responding to the IDF, Defense Minister Spokesman Adir Dahan seemed to call for the resignation of IDF Chief Spokesperson Daniel Hagari, saying, “The IDF Spokesman, who has already apologized for previously going beyond his authority by having attacked the civilian echelon – once again has exceeded his authority by attacking and preaching ethics to the political echelon. This time, an apology will be insufficient.”
National Unity Chair Benny Gantz stressed on X in response to the conflict that “Trust between the Minister of Defense and the Chief of Staff is an integral part of national security.”
אמון בין שר ביטחון לרמטכ״ל הוא חלק בלתי נפרד מביטחון המדינה. אני ממליץ לחברי השר כ״ץ, להשתמש יותר בשיחות אישיות עם הרמטכ״ל והקצונה הבכירה, ופחות בהודעות דוברות ואיומי פיטורים. באותה מידה, מצופה ממנו כמי שאחראי על מערכת הביטחון, לפעול באותה נחישות שהוא פועל להצגת תחקירי השבעה…
— בני גנץ – Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) January 8, 2025
Gants added he recommended Katz change his style of communication with both the chief of staff and the defense ministry officials – stressing it may be better if Katz took a friendlier approach with “less press releases and threats of dismissal.”
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