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- Former IDF chief speaks on Oct 7: 'I ask myself what we could have done differently'
Former IDF chief speaks on Oct 7: 'I ask myself what we could have done differently'
Kohavi says the Hamas-led attack 'is an event requiring deep investigation and clarification' and examined from 'all angles' including when headed the military
Former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Aviv Kohavi, on Monday spoke for the first time publicly since the Hamas-led October 7 massacre, saying he bears responsibility for "what could have been done differently" during his tenure.
"October 7 is a shocking and defining event Both, which requires deep clarity and incisive investigations. The event will have to be examined from all angles, in all areas and with a multi-year view," Kohavi said at an annual memorial conducted by the Defense Department.
"Within that, of course, also the period in which I commanded the IDF.I am responsible for the decisions and actions taken in the IDF during my time as Chief of Staff, and I constantly ask myself what we could have done differently," the former Chief of Staff added.
"This is an event that requires a learning process and professional and thorough investigations, which will have to take into account a broad and comprehensive view, obviously facts that are still missing, weighing classified details, and drawing conclusions," he explained.
"We will have to re-examine the concept of war and security and together with it the concept of peace," he continued. "We will have to define and resurrect the national goals and their order of priority, and remember that security is the first and necessary condition for our existence here."
"Unfortunately, even when the fighting is still in full swing, it is difficult to distinguish between the noise of the attacks against Hamas and the verbal and graphic attacks, which turn people and groups against each other," the former top general said.
"Anyone who is in the fighting or involved in the fighting knows the feeling: the belief in the rightness of the way, the camaraderie and the focus Primarily and importantly, a sense of transcendence and meaning is created. Against this background, the feeling of deep disappointment at the return to a violent and factional social discourse intensifies."
"It is wrong to demand the cessation of disputes, it is unrealistic and undesirable, but the extreme and toxic expressions must stop. This is not a comment on the language but on the depth of alienation and the enmity it represents."
"All those who take a divisive path, led by influential people and elected officials, crumble the principle of partnership and create the conditions for a security and existential threat," Kohavi alluded to a contentious period since Israel's right-wing parties put together a governing coalition, followed by weekly demonstrations that had mostly protested against a judicial reform, but also targeting a number of the lawmakers.
"We have no other country, we have nowhere to go and we will continue to protect ourselves from external threats, but we will have to protect ourselves just as much from internal threats," the former chief of staff concluded.