The former head of the Israeli army’s operations division attacked Benjamin Netanyahu’s government over news that the occupation army had recovered 6 dead prisoners from the Gaza Strip, wondering about the recruitment of his grandchildren into “an army that will abandon them.”
Reserve General Yisrael Ziv could not hold back his tears during an interview with the private Channel 12 – a summary of which was reported by the Hebrew newspaper Maariv – saying, “This is a terrible morning… you see the faces of those who were alive until a day or two ago.”
“On October 7, there was a terrible failure, and it can be explained in one way or another, but what explanations can justify the failure that is taking place today, after the entire army establishment and the Minister of Defense have been saying clearly for more than a month that continuing the war at the present time puts the lives of the kidnapped at risk?” he added.
How do Israeli and American circles talk about finding the bodies of the six prisoners from the Gaza Strip? #Gaza One of them is American? Details with Tel Aviv Tribune bureau chief Walid Al-Omari and Mohammed Al-Baqali#Gaza_War #News pic.twitter.com/Mas3vFgb2i
— Tel Aviv Tribune Channel (@AJArabic) September 1, 2024
The newspaper quotes the former military official as saying, “There is a very serious crisis. The taboo has been broken here, the taboo of basic trust between the citizen, the soldier and the state. What should a soldier or pilot think about the position of his government when he is sent tomorrow to attack Iran or deep into Syria and his plane is shot down?”
“Will this government make excuses not to bring him home?! Where is the trust of each and every one of us as citizens in a government that consciously makes an immoral and irresponsible decision? It is terrible,” he added.
The reserve general also criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, saying, “If there was any trust in this government, it vanished this morning. This government has no right to continue to exist and make decisions that were already very problematic from a professional standpoint. There is no strategy, but in the end you say there are prisoners we want to free… It was proven this morning that they no longer exist.”
“immoral government”
Regarding the Philadelphi Corridor issue, Ziv said: “Do you really think we should explain to Netanyahu that the excuses the government is making for continuing with the corridor are not real?” He said: “They hung an annoying flag (the Israeli flag) on a dirt road (referring to the Philadelphi Corridor), the prime minister is lying to the public and he knows it.
Ziv cited earlier testimony from retired General Yitzhak Brick, who said Netanyahu had told him explicitly that continuing to occupy the axis meant nothing. “The prime minister knows that.”
Reserve General Yisrael Ziv increased his attack on the Israeli government and its prime minister, stressing that there is a real problem in the form of an “immoral government and an immoral prime minister” whose considerations are not in line with the leadership of this people.
The retired official concluded the interview by saying, “It’s not just a problem for the families of the kidnapped, it’s my problem. I need to enlist my grandchildren soon. Which army will I enlist them in? Which army will abandon them? Israel must recalculate this morning. The rules of the game have been broken here.”
The voices of former military leaders in Israel are rising, attacking the Netanyahu government, the way the war in the Gaza Strip is being managed, and the negotiations over a prisoner exchange deal to return the prisoners from Gaza. Retired Israeli Major General Yitzhak Brick stands out at the forefront of these voices.
In an article published by the Hebrew newspaper Maariv last Tuesday, Brick said that the Israeli army had failed in the Gaza Strip and had been turned into pieces, warning that the collapse of the ceasefire negotiations would lead Tel Aviv to the abyss.
He also warned earlier last month – in an article published in Haaretz – that Israel would collapse within a year if the war of attrition against Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah continued.
Today, the level of anger and the intensity of criticism in Israel against Netanyahu has escalated after the occupation army announced the discovery of the bodies of 6 detainees inside a tunnel in the Gaza Strip, and some of his opponents went so far as to say that he “will delay the prisoner deal until everyone dies.”
