Military Intelligence and Political Dynamics

Yes, first of all, this is intelligence gathered in recent weeks

by the Military

Intelligence Directorate, also in some cooperation with Northern Command.

It starts from the bottom up, it goes to the General Staff, to—

of course through the Head of Military Intelligence, the Head of Northern Command, and then the Chief of Staff

brings it to the political echelon, uh, um, gets the approval,

convinces them, and they set out, uh, uh, on the strike.

So you're saying this started from the military echelon?

Certainly. There was no top-down directive here by Prime Minister

Netanyahu. I saw all sorts of statements also by—

Yair Golan and Ehud Barak.

Ehud Barak and Yair Golan, as if, uh, uh,

the military, they are using the military here for various adventures.

That is really not the case, and I will remind you, when the military opposes

something, it knows how to dig its heels in.

Just a few weeks ago, uh, the Defense Minister demanded

to operate in one of the refugee camps. They explained to him, in Judea and Samaria, they explained to him

that there was no need, because there are operations like that every night anyway, and the military

opposed it and it wasn't carried out. So anyone trying, uh, to cast aspersions,

uh, the military is like a political player, because when it doesn't

suit him, that's not how it is. I'll tell

you something I do hear in the defense establishment.

They didn't like, uh, Netanyahu's remarks, taking responsibility for the operation.

They wanted this operation to be low-profile.

Meaning, it was a targeted strike without making noise.

They also didn't like the remarks, um, by the Defense Minister.

It's completely unnecessary.