IDF Chief Pledges Tough Treatment for Dishonesty

The IDF chief of staff Aviv Kohavi said on Monday that if there was any deliberate deception in the inflated figures of chareidi recruits there would be stern disciplinary action, though he did not indicate whether the ongoing internal investigation had turned up any such deception.

“Anywhere we find a mistake, we will learn and we will improve. Anywhere we find negligence or intention [to deceive], we will act harshly. In the areas of honesty and reliability, there is no room and there never will be room for compromise. There is not and there never will be room for cutting corners or looking the other way,” Kohavi said during a military awards ceremony, according to media reports.

Earlier this month, the Kan public broadcaster reported that the IDF has grossly over-counted the number of chareidi draftees, sometimes double or triple the actual figure, and there were allegations that low-level personnel were pressured into lying in order for the military to meet quotas set by the government.

So far, senior officials, including Manpower Directorate head, Maj. Gen. Moti Almoz, have only admitted to mistakes due to shifting definitions of “chareidi” for the purpose of record-keeping, but not to deliberate falsifications.

Commenting on the security situation in the north, Kohavi said that “the Iranian arms are going deeper into Syria and Lebanon. The number of enemies we have is greater than the number of fronts.”

In that connection, Kohavi observed that the IDF is “one of the most active militaries in the world, if not the most active. The IDF operates day and night on many fronts, which keep expanding.”