Lieberman: Point criticism at government, not IDF
Defense minister defends the IDF during a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee by attributing responsibility for any failures during Operation Protective Edge to the political ranks, not the IDF.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman spoke out Monday against the government following recent criticism directed against the IDF for alleged failures in locating and eliminating Hamas terror tunnels during Operation Protective Edge in 2014.
"All of the criticism should be pointed at the government ranks, because the IDF implemented decisions those ranks made," sid Lieberman during a meeting meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
"I have heard lashings-out by political figures—including MKs—against IDF major generals. It cannot be that IDF officers become objects for attacks, certainly not by those seated around this table here," he continued. "The entire attempt to drag the military into a political conflict around Protective Edge is not right. The military implemented decisions that the governmental ranks made. Don't try to drag the IDF into this pointless argument," he urged.
The defense minister also spoke of recent publications claiming that the famous Zvika Force story from the 1973 Yom Kippur War is a myth, describing it as "an attempt to erase the basic Israeli narrative and hurt the state of Israel's symbols."
The Zvika Force incident is said to have occurred during the war in the Golan Heights. It involved a single tank, under the command of Lieutenant Zvi Greengold, nicknamed Zvika, who managed to hold back an entire Syrian tank battalion through an imaginative use of deceptive strategy.
Greengold had his tank, situated at an elevated position in the dark, constantly move around, firing shells from different positions in order to give the Syrian forces the impression that they were facing a larger Israeli force.
In addition, Greengold repeatedly referred to Zvika Force ("Koach Zvika" in Hebrew), a made-up moniker for the tank force he was pretending to command, on the radio—assuming the Syrians might be listening in and may be fooled. For his actions, Greengold was awarded the Israeli Medal of Valor, the highest military decoration the state of Israel awards.
