Air Force commander, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, held talks with officers in the force, in an attempt to prevent their publication of another letter of service refusal.
Yesterday, Bar met with former Air Force commanders to discuss the same issue, while the Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, also participated in part of the meeting. Bar was criticized for holding talks with reservists, instead of dismissing them from service in light of their intention to call for refusing service, due to the government's policies.
Last March, the IDF dismissed Alon Gur, a combat navigator, following his announcement that he would refuse to return to combat service. Gur is a 43-year-old navigator, married and father to three children, who served in the active reserves for sixteen years. For the past five years has managed a leadership center and headed a pre-military preparatory program (mechina)
To be noted that in July 2023, following the civil struggles over the judicial reform, 1,142 reservists from the Air Force – including aircrewmen, the control system and UAV operators, and soldiers from special units – announced their intention to terminate their service if the reform was not stopped. "Show leadership, reach broad agreements," said a letter submitted to the Air Force Commander at the time.
Claims about the impact of the refusal resurfaced after disclosing the failures that led to the October 7th massacre. The commander of the School of Air Control and Flight Control, Lt. Col. Yaniv Even, referred to this in the past, said, "On October 7th we didn't really understand what was happening, and we had to get organized very quickly for the operation."
According to Even, "Following the protest against the judicial revolution, there were reservists who were not fit to fight. The starting point for learning the lessons is the failure. We, as an army, have unequivocally failed."