Israel’s longest-serving general, Maj. Gen. Moshe Bar-Kochba, resigned his position Tuesday and used the occasion to launch a scathing attack on Israel Defense Force Chief of Staff Dan Shomron and his designated successor, Maj. Gen. Ehud Barak.
In letters of resignation to Defense Minister Moshe Arens and Shomron, Bar-Kochba, a veteran of 42 years’ service in the IDF, slammed the generals for what he called their failure to learn vital lessons from past wars or to build a modern army capable of fighting future wars against possible Arab coalitions.
His resignation and charges follow the Cabinet’s announcement Sunday that Barak, Shomron’s deputy, would succeed Shomron as chief of staff, effective April 1.
Bar-Kochba resigned two years before the expiration of his five-year contract with the IDF, under which he served as assistant to the chief of staff for training and command.
He also headed various teams that studied past wars, military actions and politics in the Arab world, with a view to drawing conclusions that would guide Israeli policy.
Bar-Kochba began his army career in 1948, with Israel’s founding. He served in many administrative, command and field posts but was never considered for the office of chief of staff.
In his resignation letter and charges, Bar-Kochba recommended that the chief of staff should be stripped of authority to make recommendations regarding the IDF’s fighting capabilities.
Instead, that should be vested in a national body, he said.
He also accused Shomron of sidetracking the process of recommendations on strategic issues, “because you feared that you would have to compete against junior reserve officers.”
Bar-Kochba himself has been the brunt of reprimand. In 1984, he was cited for negligence by then Chief of Staff Moshe Levy while heading the IDF Southern Command.
The reprimand followed the fatal beatings of two bus hijackers who had been taken alive by Israeli forces.
The charge of negligence was tied to the absence of any clear orders that captured prisoners should not be killed. But Bar-Kochba was not directly implicated in that incident.
The military establishment did not react immediately Tuesday to Bar-Kochba’s charges against Shomron and Barak or to his resignation.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
