The commander of the Israeli air force, Gen. Avihu Bin-Nun, was hit this week by repercussions from the bribery and corruption scandal that sent one of his subordinates to prison last month.
Bin-Nun was publicly reprimanded by Israel Defense Force Chief of Staff Ehud Barak for questionable conduct at one stage in the investigation of former Brig. Gen. Rami Dotan, who headed the air force’s procurement branch until last October.
Bin-Nun allegedly showed Dotan material related to the investigation of embezzlement and other offenses of which Dotan was suspected.
Barak made clear that Bin-Nun was not guilty of any ethical wrongdoing but rather of a “lapse of judgment.”
Nevertheless, he made an example of the air force chief by delivering the reprimand in the presence of all nine air force brigadier generals, a rare and deeply embarrassing procedure.
The reprimand was then formally announced by the IDF spokesman.
The criticism against Bin-Nun was compounded by his insistence, almost until the very end, on backing Dotan in public and private. Bin-Nun claimed throughout the investigation that Dotan was victimized by the director general of the Defense Ministry, former Air Force Commander David Ivri.
The reprimand almost certainly means early retirement for Bin-Nun, who has commanded the air force for four years.
Dotan was sentenced on March 23 by a military court-martial to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to 12 counts of corruption, bribery and embezzlement of $12 million of Defense Ministry funds while serving as chief of the air force purchasing mission in New York in the mid-1980s.
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