Ashkenazi’s scheduled retirement on Feb. 14 became the focus of public fury after his nominated successor, Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, was struck down on Tuesday over a lawsuit. Barak has resisted calls to keep Ashkenazi on until a substitute is found.
“There are ethical, normative and even professional interests here of the highest order,” he said in prepared remarks to Israel’s three major television stations.
“To preserve the dignity of the institution of the chief of staff, I do not want to elaborate further.”
Such high-profile censure of a military chief of staff, a figure around whom Israelis traditionally rally, is unusual, and it comes at a jittery time for the Jewish state given popular upheaval in Egypt and other Arab neighbors.
Barak, a former premier, has seen his own popularity plummet after bolting his fractious Labour party on Jan. 17.
Muzzled by military regulations, Ashkenazi has not publicly given his account of the long-running tensions with Barak.
At a parting ceremony on Wednesday, Ashkenazi deplored the “aberrant situation” in the military brass but sought to calm the country.
“The armed forces are stronger than all of these processes around it,” he told reporters. “I can reassure everyone that national security is in professional hands.”
Barak and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Ashkenazi’s deputy, Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh, to stand in as armed forces commander while a permanent successor is sought.
Naveh came out of three years’ retirement to assume his current post, leading Israeli analysts to question his fitness for the top job. The reshuffle follows closely on the appointment of two new Israeli spymasters and several generals.
