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Agricultural Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) blasted IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot during a meeting Sunday over what Ariel said was the IDF Spokespersons Unit's excessive focus on homosexual and transgender soldiers.

According to reports, Ariel was bothered by extensive interviews and TV reports highlighting homosexual soldiers and blamed the IDF's Spokesperson Unit for actively promoting alternative lifestyles. "Why is the IDF constantly promoting media reports about the integration of women, homosexuals and transgender people in the IDF?" Ariel asked Eizenkot.

"It exists but why do we make the IDF's main thing out of it?" Ariel continued. "Check out the number of articles about these issues and see if I'm right, and then decide if this is what you want. When the IDF's Spokespersons Unit promotes such things it show that this is the IDF's policy and I want you to investigate this".

Under the IDF's guidelines, soldiers are prohibited from interviewing with the media without consent from the IDF's spokespersons Unit, meaning that the interviews that had upset Ariel were fully coordinated by the IDF.

According to the report, Minister's Naftali Bennett, Ofir Akunis, and Miri Regev came to Eizenkot's defense.

Eizenkot replied that the IDF would continue its policy integrating women and diverse populations into its ranks and would not submit to dictates by rabbis such as Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, who recently made waves by demanding for Eizenkot to be fired for his role in integrating women into combat units.

"We have no intention of making anyone in the IDF secular and we examine the issue of service between men and woman according to operational decisions," Eizenkot responded. "Our goal is to win the next war".