Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir seemingly targeted the government during his speech on Wednesday, marking 52 years since the passing of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion.
This came after clashing on Monday with Defense Minister Israel Katz over the October 7 probes after the move to reexamine the Turgeman committee report.
“Command responsibility is the ability to continue onward - forward - with confidence, with integrity and with humility, even when it is difficult. Military leadership is the willingness to bear the burden before everyone else,” Zamir said during his speech.
He also quoted Ben-Gurion, who said: “Leadership is the ability to bear a burden, even when the burden feels unbearable”.
He continued, “Today it is clear to us beyond any doubt: explanation is not enough, criticism is not enough - courageous, purposeful, reality-shaping leadership is required. Leadership that recognizes failure and also dares to lead change.”
Not frightening, drowning leadership, but uplifting and inspiring leadership. Not evasive leadership, but leadership that looks the truth in the eye and sets a new direction. Command responsibility is to rebuild. This is the central essence of leadership.”
Zamir not satisfied with only archivements
He also claimed that the IDF cannot be satisfied with the result of the operations, even if they are a national pride: “Pride is not satisfaction. It obligates us to remain alert, to continue building a better and stronger military, with more precise command and with military leadership that looks far ahead and leads the next generation of troops.
"The IDF is ‘the nation’s leadership factory’; the leader must be ‘first to sacrifice, first to bear responsibility, first to fix’. This is the test of our command today - not only to deal with what was not, but to lead toward what will be."
The clash between Zamir and Katz began when the chief of staff called the defense minister out for injecting politics into the process and for trying to substitute the judgment of a single lower-ranked official for that of 12 higher-ranked IDF officers.
The blow-up was so large that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would call both of them in for a consultation on Tuesday.
After the clashes, sources close to Netanyahu told Kan that the prime minister believed he had “made a mistake with his appointment,” and that Zamir was “acting too independently and acting the opposite of everything he promised."
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.