Israel army commander appointments cause disputes, threats to resort to Supreme Court

Israel is witnessing widespread controversy in the wake of new appointments of generals to the General Staff, some of whom had a role in the failures of 7 October. The most prominent critics were Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich because they believe that the occupation’s Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has no right to make appointments of this kind, as he bears a large part of the failure. Ben-Gvir called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dismiss him, while others responded that, in this case, all the ministers who were in the government when the attack occurred must also resign.

Among those who criticised the appointments were families of deceased soldiers who threatened to take them to court. The new appointments in the occupation army came in agreement between Halevi and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, with the knowledge of Netanyahu. Among the appointments announced by the occupation army on Thursday is the appointment of Brigadier General Shlomi Binder as head of the Military Intelligence Division (AMAN), succeeding General Aharon Haliva, who had recently resigned, and the appointment of Brigadier General Avi Bluth as commanding officer of the Central Command in place of General Yehuda Fuchs. Meanwhile, Brigadier General Dan Goldfus will be appointed commander of the Northern Corps and head of the Manoeuvre Array in the Ground Forces. Brigadier General David Bar-Khalifa will be appointed head of the Personnel Division and Brigadier General Aviad Dagan will be appointed to lead the communications division. All aforementioned officers will be promoted to the rank of major general, with the appointments gradually taking effect over the coming months.

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Binder’s appointment and promotion, in particular, sparked a lot of criticism because of his responsibility, as head of the Operations Division, for the slow action on the occupation army’s part in the first hours of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October, as they were late in reaching the surrounding settlements. The father of one of the soldiers killed in the “Gaza envelope” attacked Halevi and Gallant’s decision regarding the appointments and threatened to resort to the Supreme Court against the decision, along with other bereaved families.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was quick to attack Security Minister Gallant over the appointments, posting on X: “Gallant, one of the leaders of the concept and one of the most prominent responsible for the failure of October Seventh, does not have a mandate to approve the appointments of generals and design the next general staff of the IDF. I call on the Prime Minister to remove Gallant from his position – he is not fit to continue serving as Defence Minister.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich joined the condemnations, posting on X on Thursday: “Regardless of the identity of the officers, the appointments of IDF generals who will lead the correction of the army after the default cannot be made by the Chief of Staff responsible for the military failure. It’s not legitimate. That’s not how things are fixed. This is not how trust is restored.”

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