With new elections potentially on the horizon, Gantz may run into some legal obstacles when pushing the appointment through during a transitional government.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz will soon move aggressively forward in the process of appointing a new IDF Chief of Staff to avoid the process being held hostage by politics, he told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.
Gantz said, “We have a great IDF Chief of Staff…but he is finishing [his role] in six months. To maintain stability, we need to appoint a new IDF Chief of Staff.” He also added that as well as this, once a new Chief of Staff is chosen, he should be allowed to promptly select his own new IDF Deputy Chief of Staff.
“There are great and professional candidates for the IDF chief position, and I am consulting with the prime minister,” he continued.
The defense minister added that “any attempt to color the decision as political is false and harms the basis of our power. I call on all rivals to leave the IDF outside of the fires of politics.”
“Any attempt to color the decision as political is false and harms the basis of our power”
Defense Minister Benny Gantz
He said the IDF would not be in a position where it would be forced to have a temporary acting leader. “I will not let happen to the IDF what happened to the police for two years,” he stated.
This was said in reference to a two-year period during which the Knesset could not agree on appointing a new permanent Police Chief and instead an acting chief with weaker authority ran Israel Police on a temporary basis.
At present, the three lead candidates for the new IDF Chief of Staff who will replace current Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi are current IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Hersti Halevi, former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir and former IDF Northern Commander Maj. Gen. Yoel Strick.
Gantz started the process last week, but these were his most comprehensive comments on the issue to date.
Reportedly, Halevi is the lead candidate for the position, but some on the Right prefer Zamir, who was helped to move up the chain of command by Netanyahu when he was still prime minister and who had worked for him as his personal military secretary in the past.
With new elections potentially on the horizon, Gantz may run into some legal obstacles when pushing the appointment through during a transitional government.
However, by starting the process before any future elections start, he is strengthening his argument that allowing the appointment to go through is just government business as usual, and not election period politicking.