Tal Lev Ram, the military commentator of ‘Maariv’, was interviewed today (Thursday) on Roni Bar On and Aryeh Eldad’s program on 103FM and referred to a letter sent by senior officers, among them former Chiefs of Staff Ashkenazi and Mofaz, in which they called on all reservists to report to the reserves, and to avoid refusals .
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“I think that as soon as there were statements like this, and events like Hvara, the army should have realized that they had a big problem that was developing, and dealt with it. I think that in general the crisis in the reserves, which is a real crisis, is found in many units, but stands out in the Air Force because of the special nature of the Air Force The air,” claimed the commentator at the beginning of the conversation.
He went on to say on the same subject: “I think this should have been dealt with earlier. This is great for the army, I think it should have been dealt with with the support of the Minister of Defense and the Prime Minister – who understand that a crisis is developing here that hurts us all. This story is not a joke, it is a very Serious. Look, in the air force there are people who talk about personal feelings and we, the people on the ground, will not fully understand it. It sounds to us like ‘a person is in a storm of emotions so he is afraid to fly? Is he afraid for his safety?’, the answer is yes. There are a lot veteran pilots whose performance in the air is different. I didn’t want to make these comparisons, but it is technically important. In addition, Smotrich’s story yesterday in Hvara really created a storm within the corps – now the story with Major General Gilad Peled has also arrived, I spoke with him a short time ago , and he claims that he blocked initiatives and had an address to hear the things and did not encourage people to refuse.”
To the question of the interviewers, whether “there is a problem of credibility here, if G gave incorrect facts to his commander, the commander of the Air Force, then there is no question of refusal”, the journalist replied that “I don’t know how to be a judge. I think that Tomer, by the way , has been going on perfectly fine until now. G, whose name has already been released, says that there are dozens of people who know that he stopped things. Beyond this incident between Tomer and Gilad, who are both excellent people and both want to benefit the Air Force, I am now talking to pilots in the reserves and they say even to us You need to calm down. Business in the Air Force is conducted in groups. There is a group that wants more, there is another group that wants less, and they are asking me to convey this message, that’s the truth.”
Lev Ram was also asked whether, in his estimation, “among the group that signed the declaration of the 37th, are there those who say more, ‘We have crossed a red line and it is impossible to accept this’, or those who say, ‘Now we will identify with C and we will also resign’?” “, and said that “I think that precisely in the group of the 37 that I spoke with, they say how important it is to stand up now. They keep coming back to the event of the 37 pilots, but I want us to treat the event as it was and not as it was published in the media and everyone will decide whether That’s right or wrong. Again, I’m not the judge here. The incident was with four people who didn’t show up on Wednesday, and informed the squadron commander that there was going to be a company talk. At no point did they say they wouldn’t show up for training, and they didn’t say at any point that they wouldn’t show up for operational activity – On the contrary. All this was supported by 37 out of 40.”
In conclusion, he noted: “So it’s true, you can say that these are pilots and maybe they have one socio-economic characteristic or another. 37 out of 40 and among them there are those who live in Judea and Samaria, there are religious guys, there are right-wingers, there are left-wingers. What crossed all of this was Havara’s story because for a pilot who knows in the end, because there is no pilot who does not kill civilians, there is no such thing, he knows and understands that this is part of the mission – it happens in war and it is under the principle of proportionality when you eliminate someone from the air, and it is in many other things. They understand it perfectly. When they Hear Hvara, their fuse blew, and Smotrich was perfectly right about that – he understood what it caused within the corps. When you see the spirit of the times, you understand that the pilots want to know how the justice system will protect them if their status in the world changes – this is a real concern.”
Assisted in the preparation of the article: Eden Ben Ari 103FM