IDF
Brigadier
General
Mordechai
Kahana
suspended,
held
a container of weapons at home
This
week Israeli President Rivlin warned against “winds of revolution”,
but the
imminent risk of a violent, armed insurgency
is posed by
religious,
right-wing
settlers, who are armed to their teeth, and their supporters in the
security apparatus in
case of withdrawal from Palestinian territories under international
pressure...
Figure.
IDF
brigadier-general Mordechai
Kahana.
____
Tel-Aviv,
October 28 – Israeli media reported this week that Brigadier
General Mordechai
Kahana
was suspended and is under investigation,
related to a container of weapons, which he held at home. [1]
The
case was initially under a gag-order, a common practice in Israel
today...
Mordechai
Kahana’s
uncle is the
late
right-wing, radical,
violent
Rabbi Meir Kahana, and his cousin is the
late, right-wing
radical Benjamin Kahane.
[2]
Comments,
published
by
media, tried
to underplay the case, while clearly indicating its broader context:
[3]
“The
State needs people who not always follow the dry commands”, said
Major General (ret) Gershon Hacohen regarding the Brigadier General
Mordechai Kahana affair, “without bandits, IDF would never have
reached where it is”… This week,
investigators from various units were busy with much more serious
suspicions in a very sensitive security organization...[under
gag-order - jz] Like [former
Brigadier
General
-jz ] Buchris
[convicted
of sex crimes - jz]
and Brigadier General Ofer Winter, who was “accused” of issuing
military battle
commands
of religious nature, Kahana was one of a
group of senior
IDF commanders, belonging to the National-Religious camp, whose
careers face obstacles. Lacking any proportion to the seriousness of
the affair, dozens of legal practitioners have filed this week
petitions [under seal.. jz] in
the Supreme Court, pertaining
to
search of Kahana’s cellphone and personal computer. The Chief
Military Defender summed it up: “The case has
caused
discomfort among Brigadier General Mordechai
Kahana’s
IDF defense team… the investigators pose again and again the same
questions and focus on petty issues“...
“The feeling among the Religious-Zionist
camp is that their people at the top are targeted, like Ofer Winter”,
Gershon
Hacohen brings to the surface a sensitive issue.
The
case of IDF brigadier-general Kahana raises some interesting
questions:
-
How could Kahana maintain such a container and move it around, going unnoticed by the Shin-Bet for years?
-
How did a person with such family background get the necessary security clearance to get to such position in IDF? Extreme left-wing family connections of this sort, or even family connections to immigrants from the former soviet union would have nixed similar military careers.
-
Would the investigation and prosecution be duly handled?
The
question of loyalty of senior IDF and Shin-Bet officers
to the law of the State of Israel (there
is no constitution),
versus loyalty to extreme right-wing, messianic ideology
and obedience to rulings by radical Jewish rabbis,
is an open, troubling one… It
was a key issued in the PM Yitzhak Rabin assassination, and such
rabbis have not been prosecuted...
Earlier this week, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin warned in his controversial Knesset opening session speech that "winds of revolution" are sweeping Israel, undermining the democratic regime. [4] Rivlin meant the ongoing attempts to undermine criminal corruption investigations against Netanyahu, including major corruption investigation related to military procurement [under gag order… jz]. [5] Indeed, there is no doubt that the Israeli justice and law enforcement system is suffering a prolonged crisis, undermining the fundamentals of a civil society.
Earlier this week, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin warned in his controversial Knesset opening session speech that "winds of revolution" are sweeping Israel, undermining the democratic regime. [4] Rivlin meant the ongoing attempts to undermine criminal corruption investigations against Netanyahu, including major corruption investigation related to military procurement [under gag order… jz]. [5] Indeed, there is no doubt that the Israeli justice and law enforcement system is suffering a prolonged crisis, undermining the fundamentals of a civil society.
However,
the suspects that Rivlin referred to are unlikely
to initiate a true revolution. The imminent risk of a violent, armed
insurgency
is posed by
religious,
right-wing
settlers, who
are armed to their teeth,
and their supporters in the security apparatus in
case of withdrawal from Palestinian territories under international
pressure...
LINKS
[1]
2017-10-22
Senior IDF officer investigated for illegal weapon possession | Ynet
[2]
Meir Kahane | Wikipedia
Binyamin
Ze'ev Kahane |
Wikipedia
[3]
2017-10-26
Kahana affair
| Israel
Defense
[4]
2017-10-23
Analysis - President Tries to Save Israel From Pyromaniac Netanyahu's
anti-Democratic Revolution
[5]
2017-09-05
Explainer - All the Scandals Involving Netanyahu, and Where They
Stand | Haaretz