Slippery Slope

The State Comptroller has published his report on the “Harpaz document” scandal. The report says that those in IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi’s office and his associates led a campaign to gather dirt on Defense Minister Ehud Barak and that Ashkenazi was at least partially aware.  Further, the report determines that Chief of Staff aide, Col. Erez Weiner, discussed ways of obtaining slanderous information about Barak and his surroundings with Boaz Harpaz, who forged the Harpaz document. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

According to The Pit: The Dark Secrets behind IDF’s Worst Leadership Crisis, a book by journalists Dan Margalit and Ronen Bergman, the Special Operations Department of the Intelligence wing is infested with all sorts of corruption: shopping sprees of cheese and sausages, private use of operation vehicles etc. The book hints ex Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, used the false document prepared by Boaz Harpaz, in order to prevent the appointment of Yoav Gallant to replace him as Chief of Staff, which would have led to extending his own tenure.

(Hebrew)

Michael Eitan, a cabinet minister belonging to the Likud party, attacked Major General Yoav Gallant, soon to be Chief of Staff, and the Senior Positions Appointment Committee, headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Yaakov Turkel, which recommended that Gallant be appointed Chief of Staff, and the State Advocacy, which has been defending the appointment at the Supreme Court (Hebrew). According to Eitan, Gallant had unlawfully taken control of state real-estate in Moshav Amikam, provided false information to the Turkel Committee, unlawfully received personal benefits, and made unlawful use of the services of the Israel Army’s VIP bodyguard unit.

The police inquiry into the Harpaz-Gallant document affair found (Hebrew) that the people close to the Chief of Staff of the IDF, Gabi Ashkenzi, searched for “damning information” on the Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, and the next Chief of Staff, Major General Yoav Gallant.

Police investigators assume that high-ranking officers, both retired and currently serving, were involved in the forgery of the Gallant Document, which specifies the details of the alleged media strategy for General Yoav Gallant.

The Military Police suspects that an officer and soldier sold personal effects confiscated from passengers on the Mavi Marmar, the Turkish ship that sailed to Gaza. According to suspicions, the two sold laptop computers to three other soldiers. All persons involved in the case were arrested.