The Chief of Staff, Lt. Col. Aviv Kochavi, today (Wednesday) sharply attacked MK Itamar Ben Gabir during his remarks at the Ben Gurion University award ceremony. He backed up the IDF commanders and clarified: “No politician will interfere in decisions Commands”.
Kochvi emphasized that “the IDF has a code of values. It is called the spirit of the IDF and it does not change with the changes in the weather. Only the commanders in the IDF will determine the procedures, the orders, the handling of people and the handling of unusual events in the IDF.”
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At the beginning of his remarks, Kochavi said: “I say in advance – I’m not standing here, the IDF is standing here. Really without pretension, I feel that the IDF is the one who received the signal. It started many, many years ago, the move to the Negev or the emphasis on speeding up the move to the Negev and participation in the development of the Negev and this is how it will continue in the years to come.
It turns out that I represent the IDF, but the IDF is standing here.”
“Nevertheless, since I was asked to speak about a few additional things, in a few short minutes I will talk about the IDF in the context of the Negev and in the context of current events. As mentioned, 40% of the IDF’s military equipment is already found here in the Negev, that’s a lot. The vast majority of the IDF’s training is carried out here in the Negev, including the courses for military personnel, the 1st Air Force, of course, the command courses and more. And of course the training bases of the troops and arms.”
“We teach two main things in the army. One is the profession, from its foundations to its cultivation, and we teach values. At the end of the day, when you ask what an army is, and especially the Israel Defense Forces, it is a profession and high-level values. Thanks to this professionalism, we succeed, as rightly said, in producing security and allow the citizens of Israel to sleep peacefully most days.
“At the end of the day, when you see the situation in the Gaza Strip, if the situation continues until April, these will be the quietest two years in the last 15 years, except for 55 hours of the last operation, “Dawn”. This is due to a high professional level, this is due to high capabilities in the field The intelligence, in the field of firing, in the field of defense, in the field of attack. These are the foundations that are being built here in the Negev. And these foundations make security for the people of Israel.
“And in a sharp transition to the northern arena – we could sit here now and I could tell you that in Syria there is an entire Iranian space that has established itself with thousands of surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, with tens of thousands of militiamen and with the Hezbollah 2.0 organization, with a new organization called Hezbollah in Syria. These three things Completely disrupted, they almost no longer exist. There is still work to be done, but they were completely disrupted thanks to a high professional level.”
“And a high professional level is of course the activity that is carried out night after night to eradicate terrorism within the territories of Judea and Samaria in order to protect and protect the citizens of the country, and this is our main mission. But the basis for everything is a very high professional level. I am proud of our soldiers and our units, some of them are so young by the way There is no other such young army in the world, nor is there an army so surrounded by arenas and enemies.”
“But I said that we also deal with values. I have no doubt at all and I say this from knowledge and after many meetings with my counterparts all over the world, and I say this from a deep familiarity with the way the IDF operates – the IDF is an army with the most values. The best example He performs the dawn. We also have exceptional events. And I am proud that we deal with these exceptional events in a poignant way, in a way that does not sway because of a gust of wind, that our value compass is stable, clear and sharp.”
Kochvi addressed the criticism leveled at the IDF commanders and clarified emphatically: “The IDF has a code of values, it is called the spirit of the IDF. And the spirit of the IDF does not change as a result of the weather, the winds of the moment. It is constant and stable and it indicates the direction for us in a very clear way. Only the commanders in the IDF will determine the values of the IDF, the procedures in the IDF, the orders in the IDF , the treatment of people in the IDF and the treatment of unusual events in the IDF.”