The real reason a former Israeli army chief called out ethnic cleansing in Gaza
Palestinians fleeing Beit Lahia via Salah al-Din Street to Gaza City, 22 October 2024
Meron Rapoport writes in +972 0n 5 December 2024:
On Sunday, Dec. 1, Israel’s Channel 12 hosted a conversation with Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon, a former chief of staff of the Israeli army who later served as defense minister. In an illuminating exchange, Ya’alon insisted on defining Israel’s actions in Gaza as “ethnic cleansing,” argued that the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague were entirely justified, and stated that he himself would have issued such warrants “long ago” against Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, and perhaps even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
To Yaron Abraham, the Channel 12 interviewer, this was entirely unexpected; he seemed to take it personally that Ya’alon was unwilling to repeat the standard Israeli mantra that the “IDF is the most moral army in the world.”
There is no doubt that such statements carry a particular weight — coming from someone who continues to identify as a right winger, who once smeared members of the left-wing NGO Breaking the Silence as “traitors,” and who, while head of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate, pushed the argument that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat was to blame for the Second Intifada. To disagree with Ya’alon that Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip — an act that clearly constitutes a war crime — requires a unique blend of shamelessness and audacity.
One might assume at first glance that Ya’alon is speaking out against ethnic cleansing because he sees it as a moral injustice. However, the true motive behind his statements seems to emerge toward the end of the interview.