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Ya’alon backs Chief of Staff Eizenkot after criticism from right-wing MKs
Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon said yesterday that he “fully backed” remarks made by the IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot earlier this week, which were criticised by some right-wing politicians as a veiled censure of conduct by some Israeli security personnel.
Without explicitly criticising the handling of terrorists by some security officers tackling the current wave of violence, Eizenkot told a student audience, “The IDF must not speak in catchphrases such as ‘whoever comes to slay you, slay him first,’ or state that anyone holding a knife or a pair of scissors must be killed.”
Unlike previous periods of violence, the near-daily attacks on Israelis have been largely uncoordinated, typically carried out by so-called ‘lone wolves,’ providing a particular challenge to security forces. In some instances, the response of police and soldiers has been criticised as over-zealous. Channel 10 said Eizenkot’s remarks angered “senior Jerusalem police officers,” who believed he was criticising police who shot and killed a teenage attacker in November.
The response to Eizenkot’s comments were largely split along political lines. Opposition party Meretz MK Ilan Gilon called the remarks “a breath of morality,” which “set much-needed ethical limits in these mad times.” However, Likud’s Transportation Minister Israel Katz said that he hoped the comments would not lead to hesitancy in tackling terrorists, while Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely accused Eizenkot of damaging Israel’s public diplomacy. Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich asked Defence Minister Ya’alon to summon Eizenkot over his “contemptuous statement.”
Instead, Ya’alon yesterday told students, “I give my full backing to Eizenkot’s remarks vis-à-vis the rules of engagement.” He explained, “We can’t allow ourselves to become desensitised or to have itchy trigger fingers.” Outlining the challenge, Ya’alon said that although “We are dealing with the current terror wave with an iron fist against terrorists, and … when someone puts us in danger, we need to hurt him,” at the same time, “We have to know how to win while maintaining our humanity.”