Posted on 07/22/23
| News Source: JPost
The IDF Spokesperson's Office denied reports on Saturday that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi had told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the military would lose its readiness for maintaining national security within 48 hours, due to protesting reservists against the repeal of the judiciary's reasonableness clause.
The denied leak came shortly after groups leading the call for reservists to quit the IDF announced that 10,000 reservists were joining their cause and 1,194 air force reservists, including an increasing number of combat pilots.
The IDF also said that Halevi would keep his communications to "the political echelon" - Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant - secret and would not share them with the public out of concern for national security.
Pointedly, the statement did not reassure the public about how long the IDF could maintain its readiness with the increasing wave of commitments to quit, and The Jerusalem Post understands that no such statement will be issued Saturday night, though the IDF had given off reassuring messages until the middle of this past week.
Halevi was expected to meet with Netanyahu and Gallant to provide them with additional updates on Sunday, but the IDF would not formally confirm the meetings.