Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz met Tuesday after a public clash erupted between Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir over the handling of senior military appointments and a high-profile internal review.
The dispute broke out Monday after Zamir sharply criticized Katz’s decision to freeze senior IDF promotions and to order a new examination of the so-called Turgeman Report — a seven-month review led by retired Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman and a panel of 12 generals into the failures of the October 7 massacre that interviewed hundreds of witnesses. Zamir said the move amounted to political interference that “harms the IDF’s preparedness.”
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IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz
(Photo: GPO)
People close to Katz said the defense minister was summoned for a separate meeting and that a statement released earlier Tuesday by allies of the minister may have heightened tensions. That statement asserted that “once the investigations are completed, there will be no choice but to take steps against additional senior officers and to toughen measures against others,” and that the chief of staff “acted within his authority but based on partial and insufficient information.”
Katz had ordered the report transferred to the Defense Ministry comptroller for a 30-day review and froze all senior IDF appointments in the meantime. Zamir said he learned of the planned steps from media reports while he was overseeing a surprise military drill in the Golan Heights.
The chief of staff argued that the report was intended to help him assess the quality of internal IDF investigations and draw lessons from the Oct. 7 failures, “not for political use,” and warned that extending the freeze on promotions “harms the IDF’s capabilities and its preparedness for upcoming challenges.”
Katz responded that the chief of staff “is subordinate to the prime minister, the defense minister and the government of Israel,” and said he would finalize decisions on the appointments only after receiving the comptroller’s findings.