Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The decision is in his hands
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Who will be the next IDF chief of staff?
Op-ed: For the first time in years, the defense minister is facing a cursed blessing: Too many excellent candidates, and only one position.
Ezer Weizman, who knew after the Likud victory in 1977 that he would serve as defense minister, had a strange habit of consulting others and asking them who should be the next IDF chief of staff. Whether they managed to reply or not, he had already prepared an answer: Raful (Rafael Eitan), because once I go public with the appointment there won’t be a single child in the state who won’t be familiar with his name and with what he did in the army.
The second chief of staff candidate at the time was not famous enough in his opinion. It was one of Weizman’s criteria for selecting a nominee for the most important positions in the Israel since the state’s establishment: The extent of the man’s fame and his actions.
IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot (R) with Major-General Aviv Kochavi (Photo: IDF Spokesperon's Office)
These days, perhaps prematurely, the signs for the appointment of the next deputy chief of staff have begun popping up in the media, and they will be followed by the appointment of the next chief of staff. A chief of staff, it should be mentioned, is not selected. He is appointed.
A chief of staff in Israel is involved in almost every important decision and touches on almost all areas of life here – from the economy to religious services. The chief of staff is usually the most popular figure in Israel, and every word that comes out of his mouth means more than any declaration, order or statement issued by others. In cabinet meetings, he is listened to with great respect. The chief of staff said.
Many in Israel don’t know that the chief of staff position is political. Many chiefs of staff spent nearly half of their term in the corridors of the Defense Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office. The decision on this most senior appointment is in the hands of the defense minister and is approved by the prime minister and the cabinet. But the almost final influence on shaping the policy and on senior appointments is in the defense minister’s hands. He knows, as the prime minister and ministers know, that they have almost no other way of influencing the defense establishment and shaping the defense policy, and the government’s policy itself.
Until the establishment of the Likud governments, almost all chiefs of staff were “one of our own” – in other words, people affiliated with Mapai and the Labor Party, which were in power, perhaps excluding Haim Laskov. Even Yitzhak Rabin was punished for his participation in a Palmach conference and his affiliation with Ahdut Ha’avoda, and was appointed chief of staff only much later. After the political upheaval, Menachem Begin and Ezer Weizman preferred their “one of our own,” although they experienced a shortage. Slowly, they promoted their own people.
The first criterion for the selection, therefore, is political. No one would have appointed Major-Generals Matti Peled or Moshe Bar-Kochba (Brill) as chief of staff at the time, as talented as they may have been. The professional skills come second. There were candidates who were aware of this secret and used to hang around the ministers’ bureaus, especially the defense minister’s. Others found out the hard way – in other words, after retiring from military service.
Fortunately for the IDF, the defense establishment and the State of Israel, the pool of worthy candidates has been renewed. In the corridors and in the headquarters, everyone is praising Aviv Kochavi, Amir Eshel, Yair Golan, Herzi Halevi, Sami Turgeman and others. The defense minister, who has studied or will study them in the coming months until he chooses his candidate, is about to face a cursed blessing for the first time in many years: Too many excellent candidates, and only one position. But what a position it is.
