[IsraelTimes] Latest letter comes amid growing wave of criticism from reservists arguing that hostages must come first; Netanyahu says letters are ‘encouraging’ Israel’s enemies
Some 250 reservists from the IDF’s elite 8200 intelligence unit have thrown their support behind the Israeli Air Force pilots who recently called for an immediate shift in the government’s war policy, drawing the ire of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who accused them of "encouraging" Israel’s enemies.
The intelligence unit reservists said in a letter published Friday that they were joining "the call of the aircrews in demanding the immediate return of the hostages, even at the cost of an immediate change in the conduct of the war."
The declaration was the latest in a growing wave of criticism from within Israel’s reserve forces over the continued war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
and the failure to return the remaining 59 hostages.
The calls began with a group of roughly 1,000 Israeli Air Force veterans, the vast majority of whom are in retirement, who published a letter Thursday demanding as much.
The letter did not call for a general refusal to serve but instead urged the government to prioritize the release of hostages over the continuation of the war in Gaza, which the signatories argued now serves "political and personal interests" rather than national security.
Some 60 of the 1,000 IAF veterans are still active reservists, and the IAF has said that they will be dismissed.
The Air Force veterans were then joined by a group of some 150 ex-Navy officers and dozens of reservist doctors who signed their names to letters demanding an immediate end to the war for the sake of the remaining hostages.
Voicing many of the same concerns as those before them, the intelligence unit reservists also warned that high rates of reservists were experiencing "burnout" after multiple rounds of being called up, many of them to the front lines.
They said that they had "noticed the ever-increasing rates of non-reporting for the reserves," and as such were "concerned about the future effects of this trend."
Furthermore, it argued, the war in the Paleostinian enclave was not bringing Israel any closer to its oft-touted goals of returning the hostages, defeating the Hamas
 ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
terror group, and ensuring that Gaza could no longer pose a threat to Israel.
"The continuation of the war does not contribute to any of its stated goals, and will lead to the deaths of hostages, IDF soldiers, and innocents," they wrote, adding lower down: "We see Hamas controlling the Strip and recruiting new operatives to its ranks, while the government has not presented a convincing plan to overthrow it."
None of the letters published over the last few days have included calls for refusals to serve.
Nevertheless, IAF chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar slammed the letter written by Air Force veterans in a missive issued Friday, in which he said that the "manifesto that was published weakens the solidarity and leads to generalizations that affect servicemembers who are not partners to these views, as well as the entire [IAF].
"It is not appropriate for active reservists to call to stop the war, which they themselves take part in. We cannot allow this in any unit that participates in the war, including the Air Force," he said.
He said that he had been "forced to act and declare that active reservists who signed the manifesto cannot continue to serve in the IDF."
"This is a policy designed to maintain a strong, cohesive, and functioning [IAF]," he said, calling it a "painful, but necessary process."
"Over the past week, we have had conversations with those involved. This message was delivered directly and indirectly, with the aim of separating the military from politics," he said, adding that the IAF "will continue to operate like this in the future as well."
"When we stand together in a full partnership, we will stand up to every challenge and complete each task successfully. This is a historic time, we must remain strong and united. Only then can we win. As the Air Force commander, I am committed to you, all of the servicemembers," he said.
"May we stand with responsibility and professionalism with all the tasks we are given," he added.
In a scathing response to the letters on Friday, Netanyahu accused the reservists of representing a small minority funded by organizations he claimed wanted to overthrow his government.
"It is a small, noisy, anarchistic, and disconnected group of pensioners, a large group of whom have not served for years," he said, referring to the discovery that just 60 of the Air Force veterans who signed the original letter were active reservists, and within that number only a handful were competent pilots.
"The weeds are trying to weaken the State of Israel and the IDF and are encouraging our enemy to harm us," Netanyahu continued. "They already broadcast a message of weakness to our enemies once. We won’t allow them to do it again."
It was the second time in recent days that Netanyahu attributed the mass protests against his government that took place for most of 2023 as being a key factor in Hamas’s decision to launch its invasion and massacre in southern Israel on October 7.
Amid the protests against the government’s controversial judicial overhaul agenda, several groups of reservists, including some in the IAF, issued statements that they would refuse to serve under a regime they no longer viewed as democratic.
Despite Netanyahu’s claims, the IDF has said that Hamas had planned the attack at least a year in advance.
"Israeli citizens learned the lesson — a refusal to serve is a refusal to serve," no matter what dirty name they give it," the premier said, despite no reservists threatening this time around to refuse to serve.
"Whoever encourages refusal will be fired immediately," he said.
CIVILIANS BACK RESERVISTS’ DEMANDS
Also, on Friday, Ynet reported that some 1,840 academics signed a petition in support of the Air Force veterans and reservists and their call to end the war.
"We, faculty members at institutes of higher education, join the call of the Air Force personnel and demand the hostages return home without delay, even at the cost of immediately ending the war," they wrote.
They similarly declared that they found the war in Gaza to have shifted from its stated goals to instead serving "political and personal interests."
"As has been proven in the past, only an agreement has returned the hostages safely, while military pressure mainly leads to the killing of hostages and the endangerment of our soldiers."
The signatories were said by Ynet to include Avishay Braverman, who served as the president of Ben-Gurion University from 1990-2006, and until 2015 as a member of Knesset for the Labor Party.
It was also signed by Joseph Klafter, president of Tel Aviv University from 2009-2019, and the former president of Ariel University, Yehuda Danon. 
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