Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s push last week for significant military action in the Gaza Strip after a rocket fired from the territory forced him to take cover was reportedly forcefully opposed by top defense officials.
Netanyahu — who is also defense minister — was escorted off stage during a campaign event in Ashdod last Tuesday, after a rocket fired from the enclave triggered sirens over the southern city. Another projectile was aimed at nearby Ashkelon, and both were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system.
Footage of Israel’s leader taking cover from rocket fire was seen as denting his security credentials, a week before the national election in which he faces a tough challenge.
After the rocket fire, Netanyahu huddled with senior figures in the defense establishment, among them the Israel Defense Forces’ chief of staff and the head of the Shin Bet security service. It was during that meeting that the prime minister suggested launching an “extraordinary” and “far-reaching” military response against Palestinian terrorist groups in the enclave, according to the Haaretz newspaper.
But the defense officials objected to such a move and warned it could spiral into war, Channel 13 news reported on Monday night.
According to the report, the defense chiefs warned that a large-scale response to the rocket attacks, which were relatively restrained, could draw massive retaliatory rocket fire from Gaza, including at the Tel Aviv area.
The defense officials also reportedly said that such an operation would require the call-up of reservists.
The report said Maj. Gen. Sharon Afek, the military advocate general, contacted Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to inform him of Netanyahu’s plan.
Mandelblit then told the prime minister he would have to consult the security cabinet before launching a military operation that could start a war, causing Netanyahu to shelve the plan, the Haaretz daily reported earlier Monday.
Neither Haaretz nor Channel 13 reported which defense figures opposed Netanyahu’s proposal. Among those present were IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi, Mossad head Yossi Cohen, Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman and Meir Ben-Shabbat, the prime minister’s national security adviser.
As Netanyahu met with the officials, Ben-Shabbat told the head of the Central Elections Committee that Israel was readying to launch a major military operation and to prepare for a possible delay of the September 17 vote, Haaretz reported.
Former high-ranking generals-turned-politicians on Monday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of seeking to exploit security issues for political gain, after a report suggested that the premier had planned to launch a military operation last week in the Gaza Strip that could have delayed Tuesday’s elections.
According to a report Monday in the Haaretz daily, Netanyahu sought an aggressive response to a rocket fired from Gaza that forced him off the stage at a campaign event in Ashdod last week. As Netanyahu huddled with top defense officials to discuss a military response to last Tuesday’s rocket fire, his national security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, told the head of the Central Elections Committee that Israel was readying to launch a major military operation and to prepare for a possible delay of the September 17 vote, the newspaper reported.
But the purported military action was ultimately aborted when Netanyahu was informed by the attorney general he would have to consult the security cabinet before launching a military operation that could start a war, the report said.
“Netanyahu did away with ambiguity for political ends,” Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz charged in a tweet, alluding to recent comments by the prime minister boasting of Israeli military action in Syria. “Now he’s lost it and wants to drag us into war to postpone the elections.
“[This is a] scenario that belongs [in the TV show] ‘House of Cards,’ not in the State of Israel,” added Gantz, a former military chief.
Brushing aside Gantz’s criticism, Netanyahu accused his rival of “playing politics” with Israel’s security.
“Benny Gantz, you’re not ashamed to play politics with security issues?” the premier said in a video response, before castigating Gantz for once admitting — during his tenure as IDF chief of staff — to having endangered Israeli soldiers to protect Palestinian civilians.
“We prepared for every scenario, including that Islamic Jihad and Hamas would disrupt the elections with rocket fire on our cities and we prepared a tough response,” Netanyahu said.
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