Eldad: Vilnai Debased Knesset

MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) verbally skewered Deputy Minister of Defense Matan Vilnai Wednesday in the Knesset plenum when Vilnai refused to give a straight answer to a parliamentary question. Eldad had demanded that the Ministry of Defense explain why taxpayers had to foot the bill after a court ordered Maj.-Gen. Elazar Stern to compensate a soldier after Stern leaked military documents that were used by a journalist who slandered the soldier.

“This is not a serious answer... you are debasing the Knesset!”, Eldad shouted at Vilnai, who – when asked why Stern did not pay the fine from his own pocket – had simply said “that is what was decided.”

A Refused Handshake

The affair began in 2005, when soldier Chananel Dayan received a citation of excellence from the IDF in a ceremony at the Presidential Residence. Dayan caused a public storm when he refused to shake the hand of the then-Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, in protest of Halutz's role in the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif earlier that year.

Maj.-Gen Stern, who was Head of Manpower Department in the IDF, wrote letters to the President in which he asked to take back Dayan's citation, as punishment for his lack of respect for the Chief of Staff.

At about the same time, journalist Yair Lapid wrote a column in leading daily Yediot Aharonot in which he showered insults upon Dayan, and accused him of lying when he said that his grandfather had died of a broken heart following the Gush Katif eviction. Lapid revealed that Stern had told him that Dayan's grandfather had died of an illness.

The court found that Stern had passed on to Lapid military correspondence between him and the President's Office which contained information about Dayan. It ordered Lapid to compensate Dayan with NIS 12,000 – a sum Dayan is appealing.

Dayan also sued Stern for NIS 150,000 – and in this case, the court ordered Stern to pay him NIS 31,500, which the Department of Defense decided to pay from its own budget.