Military commentator Yossi Yehoshua explained this morning (Wednesday) why Chief of Staff Herzli Halevi has not yet resigned from his position, despite his role in the October 7 massacre.
""But Halevi isn't resigning, why? For the best reason in the world: because he can," Yehoshua wrote in a tweet he posted on the X network. "The Chief of Staff is tied to a hermetic defense alliance - as well as a scandalous one - with Defense Minister Yoav Galant, who was once one of the army's greatest critics, after leaving it when he was disqualified at the last minute for the position of Chief of Staff.".
In a column he published in Yedioth Ahronoth and the Ynet website, under the title "The Biggest Etrog of Them All" - Yehoshua wrote: "The biggest etrog of all is the Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the man who, together with the head of the Shin Bet, is responsible for the greatest security failure since the establishment of the state, the result of which was a massacre of Jews unlike any since the Holocaust. Their responsibility is not derived only from the disgraceful conceptual failure in the months preceding the Hamas invasion, but also from the management of events on the night of October 6-7.
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""It is already clear that making different decisions could have dramatically reduced the scale of the carnage, destruction, and enormous damage caused on Black Saturday.".
Yehoshua added: "Halevi has taken responsibility and is also expected to resign when the time comes. Perhaps this will really happen in the coming months, subject to a ceasefire agreement if it is reached, but for now such an agreement only appears in the optimistic briefings of the White House. In practice, Halevi is not acting like the outgoing head of the intelligence department; the commander of the Gaza Division who was replaced this week; the intelligence officer of the Gaza Division who has already announced his intention to leave; and also the commander of 8200 who is expected to do so soon.
""From the Chief of Staff's perspective, it's business as usual: instead of vacating his seat, apologizing profusely, and conducting a comprehensive soul-searching, he is barricading himself in his office, not presenting investigations transparently, and most importantly, continuing to make appointments, as if he has the legitimacy to shape the face of the army for years to come.".
The commentator added and criticized: "If you had approached senior army officers in the first weeks after the failure and said that Levy would be the one to deal with the appointments of so many generals, even before the residents and evacuees returned to their homes, they would have urgently sent you to meet with the Chief of Staff. But Levy intends to do so.".
""Why? For the best reason in the world: because he can. The Chief of Staff is tied to a hermetic - as well as scandalous - defense alliance with Defense Minister Yoav Galant, who was once one of the army's greatest critics, after leaving it when he was disqualified at the last minute for the position of Chief of Staff.".
The commentator says that "a source who spoke with Halevi said that he has an almost messianic feeling, according to which he is the one who saves the homeland. So it is no wonder that he is unaware of the damage that has been caused for many months by the fact that he refuses to do the right thing - professionally and morally - and resign so that the army can recover. To be honest, it is important to say that like many VIPs, he is surrounded by followers and even officers who do not have the courage to talk about it until he leaves. Then we will discover a whole forest of mushrooms after the rain.
""Meanwhile, Halevi is maneuvering excellently in the rift that has opened up between Netanyahu and Galant and is making good use of their responsibility for the situation and their political weaknesses. Even if you wake him up in the middle of the night, he will know exactly who to turn to for the right briefing and convenient reporting.".
""This needs to stop. The Director General of the Ministry of Defense, Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Zamir, should be called upon as soon as possible to take command of the IDF. Gallant should have done this a long time ago, and the protection he is now giving to Levi will come back to haunt him later, because under this Chief of Staff, the army will not only not recover - it will simply crumble.".
