“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly shouted at his top military leaders last week for disclosing worries about damage to the country’s defenses wrought by reservists suspending volunteer duty to protest his government.
The Friday phone conference, during which the premier was said to have berated Israel Defense Forces Chief Herzi Halevi and Air Force head Tomer Bar, came hours after the army confirmed that Bar had warned protesting reserve pilots of ‘worsening damage to the army’s readiness.’
‘It looks like the army is running the country,’ Netanyahu reportedly exploded at the pair, according to unsourced reports carried by Channels 12 and 13.
‘You’re damaging our deterrent credibility,’ he was said to have shouted. ‘Why are you putting out headlines like this?’
Both Halevi and Bar refused requests to walk back the comments on the army’s readiness, the reports claimed, with Halevi quoted as telling Netanyahu that ‘it is our duty to issue a warning when the army’s fitness is at risk.’”