THE WASHINGTON POST: Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi to resign amid tensions between Netanyahu, army brass

Israel’s top military chief announced Tuesday that he will resign from his post in early March, marking the highest-level departure in response to the Hamas attacks in 2023 and coinciding with the start of a fragile ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza.

“The Israeli military, under my command, failed its mission to protect the citizens of Israel,” Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi wrote in an official resignation letter to the prime minister and the defence minister. “My responsibility in this terrible failure haunts me every day, every hour, and will do so for the rest of my life.”

Halevi has commanded the Israeli army over the past 15 months of war, which began in the Gaza Strip and has since spread across six more fronts, including an Israeli military ground campaign in Lebanon, as well as hostilities in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, the West Bank and Iran.

But the attacks of October 7, 2023, in which more than 3,000 Hamas-led militants streamed across Israel’s once-vaunted, technologically advanced border, killing some 1200 and dragging another 250 back into the enclave as hostages, sparked a national reckoning in Israel, raising questions about the realities of the nation’s military and intelligence capabilities. As the war dragged on, the demand for accountability from Israel’s security and political leaders intensified.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has not publicly taken responsibility for the Oct. 7 failure, has repeatedly said that any investigations into the events of that morning - including his own response as Hamas rampaged through border communities - would need to wait until after the war concluded.

In a phone call with Halevi, the prime minister thanked the outgoing military chief for his years of service and his military achievements since the outset of the war, according to a statement issued by Netanyahu’s office Tuesday, local time. The statement said the two would meet in the coming days.

Some analysts predicted that Netanyahu would use Halevi’s resignation to salvage his own political career.

“Immediately after October 7, Netanyahu launched a long-term strategy to replace the top military echelon, to make sure the official story is that it is a military failure and not a political one,” said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist from Hebrew University who is familiar with negotiations between the political and military leaderships.

“Now it’s time for the rest of them take responsibility and resign - the prime minister and his entire disastrous government,” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid posted on X.

“Alongside continuing security efforts, returning the hostages and caring for Israeli evacuees, the Prime Minister and the political echelon must fulfil their responsibility to establish a state investigation committee and lead the State of Israel to elections so that a government can be established that will regain the public’s trust,” echoed Benny Gantz, a centrist Israeli politician who opposed Netanyahu’s war strategy and resigned from the war cabinet in June.

Halevi’s resignation was immediately followed by the announcement of the departure of Major General Yaron Finkelman, the head of the Israeli military’s Southern Command, which oversees the Gaza Strip. He also cited his personal responsibility for Oct. 7.

Halevi’s resignation had been anticipated since last month, when Defence Minister Israel Katz announced in a statement that the military chief would be required to submit all of the IDF’s findings in its internal investigation into October 7 and that he would be barred from appointing new generals - code that Halevi was expected to announce his resignation. The military chief had previously said he would resign after the completion of the investigation.

But former Israeli officials said that his removal from his position could have a chilling effect throughout the entire Israeli security establishment - saying, in effect, that if its members do not align with Netanyahu’s political goals and his strategy for the war in Gaza, they could be next.

Shalom Lipner, a former Israeli government official and expert at the Atlantic Council in Jerusalem, said that Ronen Bar, head of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, who has been instrumental in the ceasefire and hostage release deal negotiations over the past year, could be next in line to leave.

“Netanyahu and his allies are keen for Bar to follow Halevi out the door now, hoping for an opportunity to ‘clean house’ and reconfigure Israel’s strategy under new commanders,” said Lipner, who added that a domino effect of falling security establishment leaders “could open the door to a purge where security professionals are replaced with government loyalists.”

In his resignation letter, Halevi said that the timing of his announcement was linked to the start of the initial phase of a ceasefire in Gaza, which on Sunday evening saw the release of three female Israeli hostages in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners, and the deterrence impact that the past 15 months of war have had on Israel’s enemies. He said that he will leave on March 6.

A former senior Israeli official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said the timing of Halevi’s resignation indicated that “Halevi did not believe that the second phase, in which the war is ended and the rest of the hostages were returned, would happen.”

“That is his message, that because he knows the second phase will not happen, and because he believes it should, he’s going to quit,” said the former official. “He’s saying, you’re not going to make me fight again, in the second phase.”

It is unclear which potential appointees are lined up to replace Halevi or which other security heads are being considered as his replacement. There has been deep concern among critics of Netanyahu’s war strategy that he will attempt to swap out military leaders who have publicly and privately objected to his lack of strategy over the past 15 months of combat, in favour of political appointees.

In November, Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who had openly criticised Netanyahu’s vow to prioritise “total victory” against Hamas over a ceasefire that would ensure the release of hostages being held in Gaza. Netanyahu replaced Gallant with Katz, a loyalist with minimal military experience.

Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right coalition member who holds a special status within the Defence Ministry and has for months claimed that the military was creating obstacles to Israeli victory over Hamas, posted on X that, after Halevi’s exit, the military would prepare to violate the ceasefire and hostage release deal and return to combat in the Strip, “this time, God willing, until total victory.”

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