After Defense Minister Benny Gantz is done overtaking the Army Radio, he will move on to his next target. His decision to advance, without any particular reason, the appointment of the next IDF chief of staff marks a new record in the politicization of the defense system.
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Of course, the Israeli public has long known that defense ministers from left-wing factions have always viewed senior appointments in the IDF as a particularly effective tool to promote their outlook as well as the officers who share those views.
Such conduct dates back to the days when the Left was in control of the Knesset, and never even hid the fact that only their partners, or those pretending to be so, were promoted. Unfortunately, this did not change even when the Right took over, and coalition partners from the Left continued to be appointed as defense ministers, and kept acting as if they were still in charge of the IDF.
After the resounding failure of the 1993 Oslo Accords, and in the absence of a different credible ideology, the Left realized that its only chance of winning the election was to place a former military general at the helm, preferably one that has recently stepped down as chief of staff. And for such an individual to be available when necessary, he must be appointed in time, a few years before he is meant to join politics, becoming the card with which they hope to win the game.
The defense ministers sowed the seeds, and a few years later, their parties reaped the harvest, in the form of popular candidates who were assigned the "sacred mission" of defeating Benjamin Netanyahu and the Right.
But Gantz's current actions are particularly troubling even if we take into account the history of appointments of military chiefs. What his predecessors did in secret, he does openly, without even bothering to come up with a reasonable excuse to appoint the next chief of staff ahead of time.
In other cases, honesty can be rather uplifting, but in Gantz's case, it only exposes that the defense minister is well aware, like everyone else, that his government is about to collapse, and he, therefore, seeks to go through with the appointment before he is potentially replaced by someone else.
Gantz's move is not only undermining public trust in IDF appointment procedures, but also hurts the current chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, and the person who would take over after him.
Bringing forward the procedures for the appointment of the next chief of staff will put the military in the shadow of two commanders for a long time, which is a recipe for disaster when it comes to a hierarchical system. It will hurt Kochavis' reputation, for no fault of his own.
If it was about a mediocre chief of staff, the price might have been justified, but there is a broad consensus with regard to Kochavi's skills and achievements. At the same time, the next chief of staff will be viewed as having been appointed hastily, all because of the whim of a politician who is about to lose his job.
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