Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon
Defense Minister Moshe YaalonFlash 90

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon is apparently still very upset over Economics Minister Naftali Bennett's direct contact with IDF officers during Operation Protective Edge against Hamas.

In an interview with the ultra-leftist paper Haaretz, Yaalon attacked Bennett without naming him. “A certain minister received a report from the field and said that there was a brigade (Givati) that had developed a method of dealing with the tunnels, but we weren’t letting them do so,” Ya’alon said.

“I suggest that ministers take into account broader considerations such as the dialogue with the US administration, the United Nations. After all, we didn’t start this operation as we did in the Second Lebanon War. We knew what we wanted to achieve. There are considerations that go beyond the fact that you have a force that is ready for action.

“There’s no shortage of threats. When you establish deterrence, you can’t attack everything just because the enemy has tactical capability. There are 100,000 Hezbollah rockets directed at us. So are we going into Lebanon now to deal with them?”

Regarding Hamas's terror tunnels, Israel let in construction materials to Gaza in large quantity starting Tuesday after international donors on Sunday pledged $5.4 billion, even as the group continues to rebuild the terror tunnels to attack Israeli civilians.

Bennett claimed that his direct contact with field commanders helped him to spur the defense minister and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz into action. Ya’alon rejected this: “That’s unacceptable. Is it legitimate for a politician to form direct ties with army officers, and based on that, to try to manipulate the chief of staff in the cabinet and say that he’s a lazy horse compared to the galloping horses, the officers in the field?

“I received no request from him to visit the area during the fighting,” he said of Bennett. “Other ministers asked to visit the units and did so, with my permission. A politician sits there and brags that officers phone him. That’s anarchy, not democracy. I was sorry to see that the former chief of the Shin Bet security service (Yuval Diskin) supports his position. How would he feel if an MK were to speak with his coordinators and make manipulative use of what he heard from them? That’s why the prime minister and I came out against that.”

Ya’alon refuses to share the credit with Bennett for approving the operation against the tunnels. “Who’s responsible for the army’s fighting spirit? The chief of staff or some political party?” he asked.

“These are political considerations. I have been in [security] cabinets in the past 20 years, since being appointed the head of Military Intelligence. In the previous government the group of eight of which I was a member discussed issues of major importance. There were serious, sometimes stormy debates, but nothing left that forum. Even if you voted against a decision, you are responsible as a member of the forum not to come out against it in public, during wartime.”