Once in a while, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin takes a stance, criticizes political and diplomatic decision-making in Israel and speaks sharply against phenomena of incitement and violence toward various populations in Israel. In his direct and courageous statements Rivlin wishes to return Israel to the path of sanity and reason, and for this he receives an outpouring of vitriol — from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the last extreme right-wing activist. In 2017, they even called him a “Nazi convert” and dressed him in a keffiyeh; in 2014, a photo appeared with him wearing an SS uniform.
Remarks he made Feb. 10 are proof that he has had enough and that he is worried about how decisions are being made by the political leadership. In a speech he gave at a conference attended by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Aviv Kokhavi and a forum of senior officers, Rivlin hinted that the political leadership is moved by political calculations and did not hesitate to goad, calling on the senior security leadership to “navigate this enormous ship called national security wisely, responsibly and fearlessly,” and say what they think “without fear of what they’ll say, what they’ll tweet … without interference from people with irrelevant considerations.”
The president’s opponents will certainly claim that this time he went too far and in effect called on the chief of staff and IDF leaders to oppose the directives of the political leadership if they think that an “unwise” decision was made for political reasons. But what are IDF officers, foremost among them the chief of staff, supposed to do, when every day they are handed a decision that reeks of politics? Refuse to execute it? Protest? Tweet like Netanyahu or Defense Minister Naftali Bennett do?
As of Feb. 9, Israel is preventing the Palestinian Authority (PA), by Bennett’s decision, from exporting agricultural products through Jordan. The products — olive oil and dates — worth 50 million Israeli shekels ($14.6 million), are supposed to reach markets in Jordan and Turkey. This restriction joins another restriction imposed by Bennett last week to stop exporting agricultural products from the West Bank to Israel.
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