Israeli leaders vowed on Monday to keep the country's conscript military free of politics after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave some coalition partners increased control over the security forces and civilian aspects in Judea and Samaria.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
While Netanyahu's conservative Likud party retained the Defense Ministry, which runs the authority that coordinates policy in the West Bank, it ceded some settlement policymaking to hardline politician Bezalel Smotrich, who will have the authority to oversee the Civil Administration, an agency that runs the daily lives in Judea and Samaria that had previously been under the Defense Ministry. Ultranationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir commands border police as national security minister.
The coalition makeup has raised questions about authority over a military that is designed in part to serve as a melting pot for a fractious Israeli society, as well as how it will handle Judea and Samaria.
"I will ensure that outside pressures – political, legal, and others – stop with me and do not reach the gates of the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)," Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said at the appointment ceremony for the new top general, Herzi Halevi.
Halevi, who though raised in a Jewish religious-nationalist home has avoided public displays of piety or politics, said: "We will preserve one IDF - purposeful, principled and professional, shorn of any consideration that is not related to defense."
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
