THE PROCESS of choosing Israel’s all-powerful military chief of staff has been frozen pending the conclusion of a police investigation into a dirty tricks campaign that has rattled the country.
The appointment of the lieutenant general who commands the Israeli defence forces is technically in the gift of the defence minister, but it is traditionally a raw slugfest between hard-hitting senior generals.
The jockeying for position usually takes place behind closed doors deep in military headquarters in Tel Aviv, but the fissures dividing Israel’s top military brass burst into the open with the weekend publication of an extraordinary document that appeared to be a battle plan for one of the leading candidates to grab the job by rubbishing his rivals and the outgoing chief of staff, Lieut Gen Gabi Ashkenazi.
The document, a “strategic plan” for the victory of Maj Gen Yoav Galant, head of the army’s southern command, carried the logo of Eyal Arad, a prominent political consultant. It suggests smearing Mr Ashkenazi and Mr Galant’s main rivals, Maj Gen Benny Gantz, deputy chief of staff, and Maj Gen Gadi Eizenkot, who heads the army’s northern command.
At first it seemed Mr Galant was involved in a conspiracy to push his own candidacy using underhand methods that involved destroying the reputation of Israel’s most senior generals.
But the story took another twist when both Mr Arad and Mr Galant denied even knowing each other and said they had never drafted any document or strategy.
Mr Arad filed a complaint with the police, alleging forgery, and prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu asked the country’s attorney general to launch a criminal investigation.
“It is not possible, at this stage, to choose a chief of staff until the claim is investigated, which will be done as soon as possible,” said attorney general Yehuda Weinstein.
“I had no connection with Eyal Arad,” said Mr Galant. “The document is a forgery. This is a despicable libel.” Adding to the furore is the barely concealed tension between Mr Ashkenazi and his political boss, defence minister Ehud Barak. Relations between Mr Ashkenazi and Mr Galant are also problematic.
The stakes are high, not only for Israel.
“The next chief of staff must be chosen with one issue clearly in mind,” said Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who held the post himself from 1995-1998. “He will have to decide whether or not Israel will have to attack Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapons.”
The job carries the huge responsibility of leading Israel’s large standing army, navy and air force as well as its half-million-strong reserve units.
If Mr Arad and Mr Galant are to be believed, the document is even dirtier than originally appeared – it is an attempt to smear Mr Galant so as to knock him out of the race. Commentators are betting on who the culprit is. Mr Gantz seems an unlikely candidate for such deception.
Some commentators believe the document was forged by right-wing Israelis as payback for Mr Galant’s role in the evacuation of Israeli settlements from Gaza in 2005, when he was then premier Ariel Sharon’s military secretary.
Mr Sharon is in a coma in hospital four years after a stroke that many right-wingers consider an act of God. The Gaza settlers’ slogan, still affixed to thousands of bumper stickers, is: “We shall not forget, we shall not forgive.”