Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening announced Defense Ministry Director-General, Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Zamir, as his pick to replace IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi.
Besides having the number one non-political role at the defense ministry, which has put him in control of much of Israel’s international defense relations and force buildup over the last two years, he was previously deputy IDF chief, Southern Command chief, and Military Secretary of the prime minister, three of the most prominent positions in the IDF high command.
Zamir came a close second to Halevi in the race for IDF chief in January 2023, but that pick was made by then-defense minister Benny Gantz toward the end of an 18-month period when Benjamin Netanyahu was out of power.
This time, Zamir beat out outgoing IDF deputy chief Maj. Gen. Amir Baram – who may be the lead candidate to replace Zamir after his term, and Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, who recently retired but could also be called back at some point to be IDF deputy chief or some other key role.
Political, defense official called for Zamir to replace Halevi
Already back in December, there were not only larger calls for Halevi to step down but specifically for Zamir to replace him, not only from political officials but also from senior defense officials.
“Fourteen months have passed… the IDF chief needs to take the decision [to resign] relatively soon, and it needs to be a rapid process to replace him because of the continuing war and because of the broader situation,” senior defense officials told the Jerusalem Post back in December.
They added that “the October 7 probes must be published soon… and there must be a proper transition period” to allow the incoming chief to get used to the role before Halevi leaves, even if the process will need to be shorter than the several months normally allocated for the transition.
They also cited Zamir’s current role as the top non-political official of the Defense Ministry, his former role as deputy IDF chief, his experience in a range of other top military roles, and that he managed to work as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military secretary without getting enveloped politically.
Possibly the only matter that could have derailed Zamir was the fact that he was also a Southern Command chief, which could allow some to try to tar him with the October 7 failure.
However, Zamir was in that position from 2015 to 2018 – five years before the invasion – and with three other Southern commanders coming after him, separating him from the failure.
Zamir’s past warnings over IDF’s size
Sources further noted that when Zamir left the position of deputy IDF chief, he warned that the military was too small to handle its full defense roles and that the infantry was too small within the military.
Sources said, “We saw parts of this and the results on October 7,” when only 600 soldiers were guarding the border with Gaza from an onslaught of 6,000 Hamas and other terrorist invaders.
Zamir is a somewhat unusual appointment for an IDF chief given that his earlier military background is more in the Tank Command than the traditional paratrooper and special forces infantry units, but his top posts in the later years of his resume made him a favorite from the start of the race.
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