Military commentator, Yossi Yehoshua spoke this evening (Tuesday) on the storm surrounding the exercise yesterday at the Central Command, which simulated the kidnapping of a Palestinian Arab by settlers. Yehoshua noted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand to receive answers from the IDF and conduct an investigation on the matter is correct. "This time Netanyahu is right," he wrote. He criticized the conduct of the military echelon on this matter, "The Head of the Central Command, the IDF spokesman and the Chief of Staff hid away, instead of issuing an organized announcement admitting that they were wrong." He revealed that in an assessment that took place this morning, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant criticized the IDF about their conduct, "and as of now they insist on not apologizing." This evening Netanyahu commented on the exercise, "This fictitious scenario is disconnected from reality. It is inappropriate and does an injustice to an entire and precious community of settlers, exactly at a time when many of them are fighting fiercely and even falling for the defense of Israel." He also added, "I am not ready to accept such indifference towards our brothers and sisters in Judea and Samaria." Minister Benny Gantz responded to Netanyahu, "The decision to practice abducting Palestinians by settlers, by pretending to be the enemy was a mistake. The IDF investigated it and apologized, and it's good that it did." He attacked, "The Prime Minister's decision to use the incident to harm the IDF and solidarity for political reasons is unnecessary, and also requires an inquiry and an apology from him, to the IDF and all citizens of Israel." This was in response to an IDF exercise held last night in the Judea and Samaria Division , which practiced a scenario of the abduction of a Palestinian Arab by settlers, as a response to the staged murder of a baby girl in a stone attack near Kedumim in Samaria.
