The military plays a central role in Israeli life and
suggestions it is becoming dysfunctional has provoked an outcry.
The promotion saga, which has dominated the Israeli media
this month, centered on allegations that a senior general had hired a publicist
to smear his rivals in his battle to replace Israel's outgoing chief of staff.
Police said on Thursday the accusations were not true and
said that a document at the heart of the affair was a fake.
But the scandal nonetheless revealed deep rifts within the
military and news on Friday that the police suspect an army reservist might
have been behind the explosive forgery added to concerns of a complete
breakdown of discipline.
"A worried nation looks on as its top security echelon
falls deeper into a sordid quagmire of lies, betrayals and debilitating
suspicion," the Jerusalem Post wrote on Friday, reflecting public concern
after a disastrous week for the army.
First there was widespread condemnation after the discovery
of photographs on Facebook of a young Israeli soldier posing besides handcuffed
and blindfolded Palestinian detainees in an album entitled "Army — the
best period of my life.”
Then came news that investigators were looking into
allegations that a soldier had stolen computers and other property from
pro-Palestinian activists who had been aboard an aid flotilla bound for Gaza
earlier this year.
Army commandos boarded the flotilla on May 31 in
international waters, killing nine activists in a poorly planned operation that
itself drew widespread international criticism.
Israeli newspapers have placed much of the blame for the
summer scandals on Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his chief of staff Gabi
Ashkenazi.
Ashkenazi was appointed in 2007 to rehabilitate the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) and restore its reputation after its poor performance
against Hezbollah militants in the 2006 Lebanon war.
"The sense, ahead of the end of Ashkenazi's term, is
that a circle is being closed: he received the IDF in a shameful state, and he
is passing it on to his successor in a shameful state," commentator Nahum
Barnea said in leading daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
Barak is due to select Ashkenazi's replacement next month.
Whoever takes over will not only have to restore discipline,
but also ensure the army is ready for a possible military strike against Iran's
nuclear facilities and face up to the threat from Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah
in Lebanon.
"If we cannot rely on the people's army and its
commanders, then we are left with nothing to rely on but our father in
heaven," former education minister Yossi Sarid wrote in Haaretz newspaper
on Friday.
