The crisis of the protests of the Israeli pilots rejecting the policies of the Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu and the war in Gaza, during the last hours, escalated in the Israeli interior to take political and military tension, according to Hebrew media.
Pilots are calling for the end of the war, stressing that it is the reason for killing the hostages and soldiers and the depletion of the reserve forces, and calling for refusing to implement the reserve orders.
The Israeli Chief of Staff, General Eyal Zamir, attacked the message of the regular and retired pilots against the war, saying: “We are not ready to enter political protests into the army.”
According to several Hebrew media, after announcing the signing of groups of former pilots on an appeal not to recruit in reserves if democracy is harmful, Zamir, who leads a strict policy on compulsory recruitment, replied by saying: “Do not repeat the mistakes of the past.”
In the wake of the new “Pilots Mission” opposed to the army and government policies, Zamir, who was present at a meeting with the former Air Force leaders, said: “Support your commander, I expect you to strengthen the Air Force.”
For the first time, the former Israeli pilots organize a major protest that threatens to call for rejection, if there is a violation of democracy.
The Air Force launched an attack to prevent the distribution of the message, while the commander of the Air Force, Tomer Bar, met in his office yesterday, with small groups of signers on the message, in an attempt to calm them.
During his meeting, Bar, in the presence of the Chief of Staff, raised the Jewish Easter.
A pilot of the initiators of the message, who was present at the meeting, explained that the message was still in the preparation phase before leaking it, which means that the decision has not yet been made regarding whether it would be published and when, pointing out that 950 reserve and retired pilots have been signed so far.
He said, “The document, contrary to what has been circulated so far, does not talk about a refusal or failure to attend, and is not directed at the army at all, but rather a clear invitation to the government to return all the kidnappers, even if this costs them to stop the fighting.”
When the document was presented to senior Air Force officials, the owners were called to a conversation in which the commander of the force participated.
The text of the message
This is the text of the message formulated by the reserve pilots: “We, the reserve pilots and retirees, are demanding that the kidnappers be returned to their homes without delay, even if we cost this an immediate stop to fight.”
They added: “At this stage, the war mainly serves political and personal interests, no security interests. The continuation of the war does not contribute to achieving any of its declared goals, and will kill the kidnappers, the Israeli army soldiers, civilians, and the depletion of reserve soldiers.”
In their controversial message, they continued: “As it has been proven in the past, the hostages can only be returned to the agreement, while the military pressure mainly leads to the killing of the hostages and endangering our soldiers.”
They called on all Israelis to “mobilize to move, demand everywhere and every way to stop the fighting, and return all hostages, now … every day passes their lives at risk. Every additional moment is an additional frequency is a stigma.”
