Senior security officials accuse Israel defence minister of “politicising” army

Senior Israeli military officials have accused Defence Minister Yisrael Katz of working to “politicise” the army by refusing to approve a series of appointments approved by Chief of Staff, Major General Eyal Zamir.

“The defence minister is trying to politicise the army and IDF officers,” Israeli Army Radio quoted senior security officers as saying, adding that “no prior defence minister did this so blatantly”. 

“IDF appointments need to be made according to the chain of command and the command hierarchy” they added, warning that Katz’s actions were a blatant affront to Zamir’s authority and will have major repercussions for the army. 

Senior military officials have recently accused Katz of trying to pressure Zamir to stop opposing the political echelon’s plans, including to stop expressing his views on the Gaza war and the army draft of ultra-Orthodox Jews. 

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper has recently reported that Katz does not approve of Zamir’s “work style”, adding that following the 7 October failure, the political echelon has tightened oversight of the army.

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