A senior Israeli intelligence officer has spent 28 years as an army reservist, sometimes leaving his family at a moment's notice to go on duty overseeing classified projects out of love for his country. Now, he's had a change of heart.
"I've told the army that if the judicial reform passes I won't continue to come," Colonel N told Reuters, asking not to be further identified. "I understand that I will face the consequences, but I think it's the right thing to do."have gripped Israel over a planned overhaul of the judiciary which would give the hard-right nationalist government decisive sway in picking judges and limit the Supreme Court's power to strike down laws.
Most Israelis are conscripted into the military for 2-3 years, and some continue as reservists into middle age. While reservists have helped Israel prevail in a string of wars, the army has relied recently on standing forces. Israel faces enemy entities on several fronts. There have been periodic flare-ups of fighting with the Palestinian Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip. Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has surged over the past year as Israel has stepped up raids in response to a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks.
He worries that such judicial oversight would in future be ignored and " don't want to be in the room when that happens". He added: "A reform that makes it possible to ignore legal advice, and selects submissive judges, will result in permanent violations of the law.""This definitely inflicts huge damage on the capability and capacity of the Israeli forces," Israel Ziv, a former head of army operations, told Reuters.
"There's nothing I want more than to fly much bigger than what I do and bigger than what my squadron does - it’s about the identity of our country," Colonel E said.
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