Moshe Ya’alon has been making news for his declarations that the Israel government has been engaging in ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Many people have been making this claim. But, Ya’alon stands out because of his former high level positions in the Israel government and its military — the Israel Defense Force (IDF).
Ya’alon was minister of defense for the Israel government from 2013 through 2016. Previous roles of Ya’alon in the Israel government include minister of strategic affairs and vice prime minister. Before that, he had high positions in the IDF, culminating in being chief of staff from 2002-2005.
Earlier this month, a Times of Israel article discussed Ya’alon’s comments highly critical of the Israel government’s recent actions in Gaza:
Ya’alon, who served as a lawmaker in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and as defense minister under him, resigned in 2016, citing deep distrust in Netanyahu’s leadership, and has since become a staunch critic of the premier.
Again doubling down on his comments from the previous evening — after also doing so in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster earlier in the day — he said he believed his assessment to be ‘accurate,’ and that there is ‘no other word for it’ but ethnic cleansing, given that government ministers speak about how ‘the Strip will be cleansed of Arabs.’
Asked whether he wanted to take back his use of the phrase, given that it is ‘extremely harsh,’ Ya’alon reiterated that he spoke the way he did ‘on purpose, to sound the alarm.’
This week, an Israel government official responded to Ya’alon’s comments. Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli, as reported in a Monday Jerusalem Post article, “criticized Ya’alon’s remarks on Sunday, emphasizing their impact, sparking widespread backlash and being amplified by global media outlets.”
Instead of complaining about Ya’alon’s comments creating a bunch of bad publicity for the Israel government, Israel leaders could concentrate on reevaluating and redirecting the nation’s military actions so accusations such as those made by Ya’alon no longer ring true to people around the world. And the United States government would do well to tell the Israel government that financial and other support critical for Israel’s war effort is over.