Petitions delay nomination of new IDF chief of staff
Defense Minister Lieberman says he is unable to announce his two candidates for the position due to pending petitions filed against appointing committee members, whose relationships with PM have been brought into question.
The Defense Minister's office said that “the ministry is in dialogue with the chairman of the Committee for the Appointment of Senior Officials and with the Ministry of Justice, in the hope of shortening schedules as much as possible.”
Lieberman was expected to announce on Thursday his two candidates to replace the incumbent army chief Gadi Eisenkot, but according to a report published this week, the appointing committee will not be able to approve a candidate since two of its members have a pending petition against them.
Committee chairman, retired supreme court justice Yaakov Goldenberg, told Lieberman not to announce the candidates name while “the committee is paralyzed”.
It was further reported that two of the committee members, former head of the National Security Council, Yaakov Nagel, and the former chairwoman of the directorate of the Ashdod port, Iris Stark, have a pending High Court of justice petition against them.
The pending petition concerns the two committee members’ relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
According to the state comptroller's website, Stark contributed NIS 5,000 to the 2012 Gila Gamliel primaries campaign, who now serves as minister of social equality. She also attended several of Gamaliel's family celebrations.
Furthermore, when Stark occupie the position of chairwoman of the directorate of the Ashdod port between 2004-2007, the state comptroller criticized her management.
Among leading candidates to succeed Eisenkot are his deputy, Major-General Aviv Kochavi, former Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan, Outgoing GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir and Major-General Nitzan Alon, Head of Operations division.
Golan suffered harsh criticism over his speech at the Holocaust memorial service two years ago, while Zamir was praised after Operation Protective Edge in 2014 for his part in building the Gaza region barrier against Hamas tunnels.
This week Golan made headlines again, following a letter from several bereaved families who asked Lieberman not to appoint him as chief of staff.
The IDF came out in defense on Monday of Golan after the letter was sent to Lieberman, saying that “every baseless attempt to besmirch the good name of a commander in the IDF and his operational contributions is not appropriate.”
