At present, Gadi Eisenkot apparently does not have access to the same intelligence as the prime minister. He does not have the same inside information. Yet from this Knesset’s very first day, he has recklessly used every available platform to urge Netanyahu to refrain from any military action. It is difficult to convey the sheer absurdity of this situation.
There have been allegations that Netanyahu has exploited the security situation for political gain. Those allegations are true, and it has happened more than once or twice. The reason is that Netanyahu believes his continued tenure is itself a security interest of the State of Israel. This is indeed one of the troubling aspects of Netanyahu as a person.
But Eisenkot is setting an extremely dangerous precedent. His threats, “woe betide him,” “he must not”, seek to subordinate the executive branch to the suspicions of a political rival trying to assemble a coalition. Few developments in Israel’s political history have been as shocking or disturbing, and this rhetoric began the very day after the election.
Nothing could be stranger or, for that matter, less statesmanlike. To do this in front of the military leadership borders, quite literally, on politically motivated sedition. For that, Eisenkot could face an immediate Shin Bet investigation.
We have thus reached a situation in which Eisenkot, who claims Netanyahu is unfit to govern, is himself behaving like a hothead with no self-control, issuing threats and sending messages to senior IDF officers at this moment.
And he is doing so not as the country’s leader, but as an opposition leader, in full view of the country and the world.
Could anyone put forward a more reckless candidate for leadership?
None of this means that Netanyahu himself has not been reckless on security matters. He has. But we have not seen a precedent like this before, and the fact that both men are wrong does not make either one right.
