Benjamin Netanyahu Press Conference (screenshot from Israel channel 12)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spent the end of the Passover holiday fending off attacks that he himself refused to perform reserve military service in the IDF 40 years ago at the start of Israel’s first Lebanon War. The accusation was made by a former commander of his and in response to Netanyahu’s continued attacks on political opponents who say they will not perform their reserve obligations if the government’s controversial judicial reform plan is implemented.
Lt. Col. Shlomi Riesman, who claims to have been the commander of Benjamin Netanyahu’s battalion the elite IDF special forces “Sayaret Matcal” (the IDF Chief of Staff’s Reconnaissance unit) at the time, condemned Netanyahu for charging that people threatening not to perform reserve duty in political protest are harming Israel’s security, saying Netanyahu himself once refused a wartime callup before he entered politics.
“In the First Lebanon War, you withdrew from the reserves from a mission that was not to your liking and disappeared,” charged Riesman. “You did a zero number of reserve days, and therefore I removed you from the unit. You are the refusenik.” Riesman said many members of his reserve unit returned to Israel from abroad to perform their reserve duties in time of war.
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Netanyahu’s office issued an extended denial of this calling Riesman a liar and saying he was not Netanyahu’s commander since the Prime Minister was already serving the country at Israel’s US embassy at the time. The office said Riesman did not begin his tenure as the unit’s commander until after Netanyahu was already in the state service abroad and, as such, no longer expected to return to Israel for reserved duty.
A month before the First Lebanon War, which began in June 1982, Prime Minister Netanyahu was appointed an Israel envoy to Washington. Benjamin Netanyahu, however, did join his unit for an operation in the Shoof Mountains above Beirut, before he left for the U.S. Afterwards, his office said Netanyahu was “at the forefront of Israel’s difficult political and propaganda struggle throughout the war.”
By the time Netanyahu returned to Israel after completing such service abroad he was already almost 40 years old – no longer expected to perform the physical feats required of special forces – and became a member of the Knesset right after.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu dedicated his life to Israel’s security and even risked his life several times in firefights in the war of attrition in the Suez Canal (a conflict with Egypt between the Six Day and Yom Kipur Wars at the start of the 1970s) and in many operations,” it said. “He was even injured in the operation to free the hijackers of the Sabena plane.”
The “Sabena” plane was from the defunct Belgian airline hijacked by Arab terrorists in 1972 and brought to Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel. The hostages were rescued by the Sayeret Matkal unit then led by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and which, at the time, included a young Benjamin Netanyahu.
As a reservist, added his office, Benjamin Netanyahu returned from his studies in the US in order to fight in the Yom Kippur War.
“Whenever the flag was called,” it said, “Prime Minister Netanyahu reported for reserve duty. This is what he expects everyone to do and he is full of appreciation for the reservists who bear the burden of protecting the country.”
Massive protests have rocked Israel over the past few months, ever since Justice Minister Yariv Levin revealed the government’s plans to alter the nature of Israel’s judicial system. The government’s judicial reform plan would greatly curtail the power of Israel’s Supreme Court to nullify legislation passed by the Knesset and also limit the authority of Israel’s attorney general. The opposition charges this would harm Israel’s democracy, eroding foreign confidence in the country and hurting its economy. And this is why the country is now on the brink of what some are describing as the biggest societal clash in Israel’s history.
