Former IDF chief Kochavi says Israel will need to re-examine 'concept of war and security and together with it the concept of peace'
Former IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi made his first public remarks about Hamas' attack on Oct. 7 attack and the war in Gaza during an annual memorial ceremony for fallen soldiers in Jerusalem on Monday.
He said: "I am responsible for the decisions and actions taken in the IDF during my time as Chief of Staff, and I constantly ask myself what we could have done differently. It will also be necessary to review the period the IDF was under my command. The State of Israel will have to redefine the concept of security."
"This is an event that requires a learning process and professional and thorough investigations, which will have to take into account a broad and comprehensive view, obviously facts that are still missing, weighing classified details, and drawing conclusions," he explained.
"We will have to re-examine the concept of war and security and together with it the concept of peace," he continued. "We will have to define and resurrect the national goals and their order of priority, and remember that security is the first and necessary condition for our existence here."
"Unfortunately, even when the fighting is still in full swing, it is difficult to distinguish between the noise of the attacks against Hamas and the verbal and graphic attacks, which turn people and groups against each other," Kochavi said.
"Anyone who is in the fighting or involved in the fighting knows the feeling: the belief in the rightness of the way, the camaraderie and the focus Primarily and importantly, a sense of transcendence and meaning is created," the former chief of staff continued.
Kochavi also addressed the divisive public discourse before the "Black Shabbat" on Oct. 7.
"Against this background, the feeling of deep disappointment at the return to a violent and divisive social discourse intensifies," he said.
"It is wrong to demand the cessation of disputes, it is unrealistic and undesirable, but the extreme and toxic expressions must stop. This is not a comment on the language but on the depth of alienation and the enmity it represents."
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
