The Major General (res.) who supported the expulsion: The settlements in Judea and Samaria have no security value

August 27, 2023   

Kobi Barkai, announcer of Kol Yisrael, spoke in a podcast on Kan 11 with Maj. Gen. (res.) Gadi Shamni - who was the General of Central Command and the military secretary of Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, during the Second Lebanon War. Purchasing with a credit card? This is how you protect yourself from theft! ""I do not rule out the possibility that the State of Israel will be under an existential threat," he claimed, regardless of the danger from Iran. "Our relationship with the US is not helping. We have a bad relationship led by Benjamin Netanyahu and this is seeping down." Shamni, who supported the Oslo Accords and the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif, claimed that the settlements in Judea and Samaria have no security value for the State of Israel. "If, for example, there were no settlements in Judea and Samaria and the IDF was responsible for the area and was sitting in the Jordan Valley with the Palestinian Authority, then my rough estimate would be that we would need more or less a third of the current strength of the IDF." He added: "What is happening in the service in the territories? The IDF, I don't want to say an army of occupation, is a garrison. It deals with checkpoints and patrols that degenerate the forces operationally... My thinking is also degenerate because the world of the IDF is a problematic world that is not ready for war." The retired major general attacked the conscription law, calling it the "Law of Evasion": "We need to stop all legislation now and concentrate our energies on restoring the IDF to its place in Israeli society.".