| | OPINION
The First Moves of the New IDF Commander
by Yitzchok Roth
The new IDF commander, Ayal Zamir, began his new career on his left foot, or perhaps, it is more correct to say, "with his right foot," because he acted against his left foot. The almost first thing he did was to announce about the IDF spokesman of up till that day, Read Admiral Daniel Hagari, that he had no intention of promoting him a notch higher to general but to leave him at his present level but in a different position. Commander Zamir offered him a different top army post but Hagari declined the offer, announcing that if he does not get the advancement as general, he quits.
This was his left-foot beginning. Can one conceive of dismissing an army spokesman from his job?
One should remember that Hagari became the 'pet' of the Left after he criticized his political bosses several times. In a standard country, top army officials do not publicly voice criticism of political ranks to which they are expected to be subordinate and even if they have what to say, they only do it behind closed doors.
Had this prime army figure been a man of the Right voicing censure against a Leftist government, he would have been sent flying to the resounding voice of the exultant media, but Hagari was on the 'correct' side and publicly expressed condemnation against the government. He twice publicly spoke against his senior of rank, Security Minister Yisrael Katz, and even though he later apologized, his remarks were not unintentional but well planned.
This way, he gained popularity with the Left and it is easy to guess that in the near future, after a cooling-off period as required by law, we would find him in the political picture, and not on its Rightist side.
Hagari, we must note, executed his office faithfully, when at the onset of the war, almost daily, he presented the army position and its actions to the public. So long as he executed his responsibility dependably without mixing into the political disagreement, all was fine and good — until he injected his Leftist anti-government views, which is an act not acceptable in a democratic country: the army is expected to be outside of the political game, and its prime officials are expected to remain within the territory of their jobs and not intervene in conflicts between Right and Left.
The new brigadier-general did not agree to submit to the dictates of Hagari to accept the new office immediately, as was pointed out by the Leftist camp, a label from which he will be hard put to shake off. If the deposed chief of staff gained the total coddling of the Left despite his culpability to the terrible failures, the new one will be scrutinized under a magnifying glass if, 'G-d forbid', he perseveres in his Rightist shenanigans.
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