The IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) on Sunday both stridently denied a Channel 12 report that said they were considering going public, along with the Mossad, with the harm to their readiness from protests against the government’s judicial reform.
Though the Mossad only issued a public denial of the report more than an hour after the IDF and Shin Bet statements, The Jerusalem Post had already immediately reported that the Mossad also denied the report.
The Channel 12 report said that the chiefs of all three services were frustrated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for allegedly preventing the cabinet from receiving updates about the harm to the security services’ readiness.
In fact, the cabinet has not been receiving such updates which is viewed by many in the security and law areas as problematic. But it has been unclear whether Netanyahu has prevented the updates or whether the ministers themselves have refused them.
Last month, the day that the Knesset repealed the judiciary’s reasonableness standard oversight powers, the cabinet refused to receive an update from the IDF intelligence and operations chiefs before their vote.
Report claims security chiefs have decided due to being unable to update cabinet
Channel 12 said that due to Netanyahu preventing the cabinet from receiving updates, the three security chiefs believed they had the right to go over Netanyahu’s head directly to the public to express how dire the situation is.
Further, the report said that the three chiefs wanted to go public before September, when the harm to the air force’s readiness may hit a more critical stage.
In September, the air force will return to full-scale drills and will have to make judgments about which pilots are no longer fly-ready due to having missed a certain number of flight drills. This was an issue that could be avoided in August when many pilots are on vacation or could be categorized as being on vacation anyway.
Both the IDF and the Shin Bet issued statements almost immediately rejecting the report completely and saying that they coordinate all moves with the political echelon.
The Mossad does not have its own public spokesperson and is represented in that capacity by the prime minister’s office, which issued a later statement after the Post had already learned that the Mossad also rejected the report.
Channel 12 did not respond to requests for clarification, but the lead possibilities for the leaked story appeared to be Netanyahu himself, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant or leaders of the protest movement.
Based on the result, it would seem more likely that Netanyahu or Gallant leaked the report, since the leak forced the three chiefs to deny the report, effectively pushing them further away from such a public action.
Netanyahu has allegedly executed similar pre-emptive publicity strikes in the past against figures like former president Reuben Rivlin to try to reduce the chances that some major player in Israeli society might take a controversial action which he does not want.
There were multiple contradictory leaks Sunday night about the content of Netanyahu's meeting with the top security chiefs.
Some leaks emphasized the intensity of the warnings to Netanyahu and that the prime minister and top security officials are closer than they have been to loggerheads in months after having been on a similar page from April through June.
One of the leaks even warned of a potential future commission of inquiry against the prime minister and the security chiefs if the defense establishment fails at a critical moment because it was understaffed.
Another focused on the idea that the security chiefs had exhausted Netanyahu's patience when this past weekend IDF Air Force Chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar came out with the most negative statement to date about the air force's readiness, after months of downplaying the problem.
It does not appear that either the security chiefs or Netanyahu have yet backed down on their respective positions with the chiefs warning that the prime minister must at least pause his judicial overhaul, and Netanyahu wanting the chiefs to compel their soldiers to serve.