A small group of reservists from Israel\u2019s elite military intelligence unit joined a call for an immediate return of the hostages in Gaza even if it requires an immediate end to the war, in a sign of a growing protest movement after more than 18 months of war. <\/p>\n
The public letter, with more than 250 signatories, says the war \u201cis currently mainly serving political and personal interests and not security interests.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe continuation of the war doesn\u2019t contribute to any of the declared objectives, and will lead to the death of hostages, (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers, and of innocents,\u201d the authors wrote. <\/p>\n
The letter was written by reservists and retirees from Israel\u2019s elite Unit 8200, the biggest military intelligence unit. It also criticizes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s stated plans to defeat Hamas and return the remaining 59 hostages held in Gaza. <\/p>\n
To continue governing, the prime minister requires the support of coalition partners from far-right parties who have threatened to quit the government should the war end. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe government didn\u2019t take responsibility for the catastrophe, and doesn\u2019t admit that it has no plan or solution for the crisis,\u201d the authors wrote. \u201cWe join the call of the air crews to all Israeli citizens to take action and demand, everywhere and in any way, the return of the hostages now and the cessation of the fighting.\u201d <\/p>\n
The new public protest comes a day after hundreds of air force retirees and reservists published a similar letter in major newspapers in Israel, saying \u201cthe war mainly serves political and personal interests and not security interests.\u201d <\/p>\n
Israel has a relatively small standing military, but a much larger reserve corps upon which it relies during an extended conflict. A growing protest movement within the reserves could potentially affect the Israeli military\u2019s ability to conduct an extended campaign in Gaza. <\/p>\n
While the two letters criticized the continuation of the war, the signatories have not refused to serve. <\/p>\n
Within hours of the first letter\u2019s release on Thursday, the Israeli military announced that it had fired the air force reservists who had signed the letter and was analyzing the signatures to see how many more were still in the military. An IDF official said most of the signatories are not active reservists. <\/p>\n
The commander of the Israel Air Force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, criticized the letter in his own missive published Friday. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe messages which appear in the proclamation express a lack of trust and damage the cohesion within the force,\u201d Bar wrote. \u201cSuch publication has no place during wartime as IDF soldiers and commanders are risking their lives.\u201d <\/p>\n
Netanyahu slammed the new protest letter and attempted to cast the authors as a tiny minority. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey were written by a small group of bad apples, operated by organizations funded by foreign money, which have one goal \u2013 topping the right-wing government,\u201d Netanyahu said in a statement, without providing any evidence of his claims of foreign influence. <\/p>\n
But Netanyahu\u2019s statement acknowledged that the protest letters were coming from multiple parts of the military, and mentioned a potential similar letter from the navy. \u201cOnce again those same letters: one time on behalf of pilots, another time on behalf of navy graduates, and other times under different names,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The prime minister tried to downplay the significance of the letters despite recent polls showing that nearly 70% of the Israeli public supports an end to the war in order to free the remaining hostages. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t a trend. This isn\u2019t an influx. This is a small group of retired personnel, who are loud, anarchist and disconnected,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The move to clamp down on the public protest appeared aimed at stemming increasingly vocal discontent among reservists and preventing a repeat of 2023, when waves of reservists said they would refuse to serve in protest of Netanyahu\u2019s judicial overhaul efforts. <\/p>\n
Nearly all of those reservists ultimately answered call-ups they received after Israel was attacked on October 7, but that wartime unity has begun to falter as the war has dragged on. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A small group of reservists from Israel\u2019s elite military intelligence unit joined a call for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}