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Home Publications Military and Strategic Affairs Hasn’t the Time Come for the Political Training of Senior IDF Officers?

Hasn’t the Time Come for the Political Training of Senior IDF Officers?

Military and Strategic Affairs, Volume 6, No. 3, December 2014

עברית
Yoram Peri
The Harpaz Affair has revealed one of the worst crises in the history of the relations between the political and military echelons in Israel. Despite the great interest in the affair, one crucial aspect of the relations between then-Minister of Defense Ehud Barak and then-IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi has been ignored: the battle between the two over the “general headquarters” section of the IDF Supreme Command orders, which sets forth the status of the Defense Minister vis-à-vis the IDF Chief of Staff and reflects who is head of the military. This is a struggle on the very principles determining the relations between the political echelon and the subordinate military echelon. While the reasons for the recurring crises between the two echelons are generally known and various plans for correcting the situation have been devised, systematic steps to rectify the situation have yet to be taken. What are the reasons for preferring ambiguity in defining the relations between the two? Whose interest does this ambiguity serve, and to what end?

The opinions expressed in INSS publications are the authors’ alone.
Publication Series Military and Strategic Affairs
TopicsMilitary and Strategic Affairs
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  • Research

    • Topics
      • Israel and the Global Powers
      • Israel-United States Relations
      • Glazer Israel-China Policy Center
      • Russia
      • Europe
      • Antisemitism and Delegitimization
      • Iran and the Shi'ite Axis
      • Operation Roaring Lion
      • Iran
      • Lebanon and Hezbollah
      • Syria
      • Yemen and the Houthi Movement
      • Iraq and the Iraqi Shiite Militias
      • Conflict to Agreements
      • Israeli-Palestinian Relations
      • Hamas and the Gaza Strip
      • Peace Agreements and Normalization in the Middle East
      • Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States
      • Turkey
      • Egypt
      • Jordan
      • Israel’s National Security Policy
      • Military and Strategic Affairs
      • Societal Resilience and the Israeli Society
      • Jewish-Arab Relations in Israel
      • Climate, Infrastructure and Energy
      • Terrorism and Low Intensity Conflict
      • Cross-Arena Research
      • Data Analytics Center
      • Law and National Security
      • Advanced Technologies and National Security
      • Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference
      • Economics and National Security
    • Projects
      • Preventing the Slide into a One-State Reality
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