August 13/14, 2023 -
Information Clearing House
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A former IDF general argued that
Israel’s control of the West Bank has
similarities to discriminatory policies
under Nazi Germany, and expressed fear that
soldiers will not be motivated to defend the
country if the coalition succeeds in
shackling the judiciary.
Amiram Levin, who headed the IDF Northern
Command, commanded the elite Sayeret Matkal
unit and served as deputy director of the
Mossad spy agency, told
Kan radio
on Sunday morning that the military is not
only suffering
harm to its
preparedness because of reservists’ threats
and refusals to serve amid the government’s
judicial overhaul, but is also “rotten to
its core” due to Iarael’s ongoing presence
in the West Bank.
“It
stands on the side, looks at the rioting
settlers, and begins to be a partner in war
crimes,” Levin told the public broadcaster.
“It’s 10 times worse than the issue of
[military] readiness… and I say honestly, I
am not angry at the Palestinians, I am angry
at us. We are killing ourselves from the
inside.”
Recent months
have seen a rise in settler violence, with
the United Nations earlier this month
reporting
close to 600 attacks on Palestinians and
their property over the past six months. The
Israeli defense establishment recorded
similar numbers during that period.
According to official data provided to The
Times of Israel, there were 680 incidents of
stone-throwing or assault of Palestinians by
settlers in the first six months of 2023,
compared to 950 in all of 2022.
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The interviewer
asked Levin if he agreed with a
May 2016 speech
by former Meretz MK Yair Golan, who was IDF
deputy chief of staff at the time, in which
he said that processes in Israel were
similar to some in Europe in the years
leading up to the Holocaust.
“We
find it difficult to say it, but that’s the
truth,” Levin responded. “Look around
Hebron, look at streets, streets that Arabs
can’t use, only Jews, that’s exactly what
happened in countries like that.”
Pressed on whether he saw specific
similarities with Nazi Germany, Levin said:
“Of course. It hurts, it’s not nice, but
that’s the reality. It’s better to deal with
it, even if it is hard, than to ignore it.”
Levin also assailed Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s appointment of “draft dodger”
cabinet members such as National Security
Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who was not
accepted for mandatory military service by
the IDF because of his extremist activities.
The
prime minister is being exploited by “a
messianic group of criminals, former
‘hilltop youth,’ people who don’t even know
what democracy is,” he charged, referring to
extremist settler activists.
“They come from areas where there is no
democracy, from the West Bank, where for 56
years there hasn’t been democracy there,”
said Levin. “There is absolute apartheid.”
While the challenge to the IDF’s
preparedness amid a widespread reservist
protest movement is “disturbing,” Levin said
that “motivation and unity” is more
important.
He
argued that the military managed to overcome
its lack of readiness for the 1973 Yom
Kippur War when Arab armies launched a
surprise attack, due to soldiers’ will to
fight for the country. “This is not done for
a dictator,” he said, adding that soldiers
have to believe in the country in order to
fight for it.
“And today there is a rupture. People don’t
believe that a country under a dictatorship
will survive. And even if it does, it’s not
a place good people want to live in.
Therefore, we need to be concerned a lot
more about the coup and this awful group,”
he said, referencing the coalition’s
judicial overhaul legislation.
Levin also
spoke on Saturday night at the
central anti-overhaul rally in Tel Aviv,
where he burst into tears while appealing to
Likud ministers to intervene and stop the
overhaul.
In
response to Levin’s radio interview, Likud
MK Danny Danon, a member of the Knesset
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,
expressed disappointment that people who had
contributed to the state in the past would
express such sentiments, saying that “their
minds get a little confused.”
“Anyone who compares us to Germany or the
Nazi regime needs to be examined,” Danon
said.
In
response to Levin’s comments, Ben Gvir’s
office said in a statement that the former
general “knows well that Ben Gvir was not
drafted into the army because of political
pressure from leftists.”
The chief of
the Israeli Air Force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar,
met Friday with dozens of reservist pilots
who have declared they would no longer show
up for volunteer duty to protest the
overhaul,
warning
them that the state of the force’s readiness
was “worsening.”
An
unconfirmed report by Channel 12 news added
that Bar told pilots: “Instead of preparing
for war, I’m dealing only with this.”
As
the coalition advanced the first major piece
of related legislation last month, more than
10,000 reservists who frequently show up for
duty on a voluntary basis said they would no
longer do so. The reservists, some of whom
have acted on their threats, have warned
they will not be able to serve in an
undemocratic Israel, which some charge the
country will become if the government’s
judicial overhaul plans are realized.
