Maj. Gen. (res.) Noam Tibon, who hosted tonight’s anti-government protest at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, referred to police reports indicating that around 40,000 people participated, marking it as one of the largest demonstrations since September.
The rally featured speeches from former officials such as Roni Alsheich, Tamir Pardo, and Yoram Cohen, who had held prominent positions as the former heads of the police, Mossad, and Shin Bet, respectively. Also present were Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, and Rafi Ben Shitrit, whose son Elroi, 20, was killed while attempting to repel the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
In the wake of a criminal investigation and a Shin Bet inquiry into the alleged ties between Hamas supporter Qatar and top aides to Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, Alsheich accused the prime minister of allowing Qatar to mediate a ceasefire in order to maintain Hamas’ hold on power, which would act as a counterbalance to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. “Qatar’s strategic aim is maintaining Hamas rule,” Alsheich stated. “The hostages are a pawn of the Qataris toward that aim.”
Alsheich explained that his suspicions began early in the war, but his concerns grew more intense when Netanyahu announced plans to remove Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, just days after both officials had launched the investigation into Netanyahu’s aides.
Pardo, referring to Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, sharply criticized the prime minister for ordering surprise airstrikes across Gaza, which led to the collapse of the fragile ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas. “The ‘peace for Netanyahu’ war has begun,” Pardo stated. He further described Netanyahu as a “coward, charlatan and liar” who was leading Israel toward self-destruction. “We won’t forgive and won’t forget the abandonment of the country’s defense,” Pardo asserted. “You, the suspect Benjamin Netanyahu, pose a clear and present danger to the nation’s security.”
Pardo accused Netanyahu of engaging in selektzia—a term from the Holocaust era referring to the Nazis’ practice of choosing Jews for forced labor or death. He argued that the chareidi draft exemption was “selektzia of blood from blood.” The prolonged hostage releases under the Gaza ceasefire agreement, Pardo claimed, were “a disgraceful fraud that led to Judenrat-like selektzia between hostages,” a reference to Jews empowered by the Nazis to decide who would be sent to death camps. “The fraud, deceit and lies will be remembered forever,” Pardo said.
Throughout the event, Pardo’s and Alsheich’s speeches were frequently interrupted by chants of “traitor” from the crowd. Cohen, during his speech, urged the audience not to use the term “traitor,” which prompted boos from the crowd. Although Cohen also criticized Netanyahu’s actions, his more cautious language did not resonate with the protesters. “It’s my understanding,” Cohen said, which was met with annoyed murmurs, “that the real existential threat is not Hamas and Hezbollah but those who seek to change Israel’s democratic character.”
Tibon later echoed Cohen’s plea not to call Netanyahu a traitor but was met with no more success than Cohen. He praised both Ben Shitrit and Zangauker for their bravery, telling Zangauker, “I’m a general in the military, but in your struggle to bring back Matan and the other hostages, we’re all your troops and will go where you tell us.”
As Ben Shitrit took the stage, the crowd chanted, “You’re not alone — we’re with you!” The grieving father condemned Netanyahu for refusing to convene a state commission of inquiry into the failures leading up to the Hamas attack, a move that public opinion polls showed was overwhelmingly supported by Israelis. Netanyahu, whose government was working to weaken the judiciary, argued that such a committee would be biased against him, as it would be led by a former Supreme Court justice, with members appointed by Chief Justice Isaac Amit, whom the government was currently boycotting.
Ben Shitrit emphasized the importance of establishing a state commission. “How will we mend if we don’t know what we’ve broken, how will we improve if we don’t know where we’ve failed, [and] how will we heal if we don’t know what’s ailing us?” he said. He stated that the nation’s priorities should be “citizens before the government, kingdom before the king, democracy before politics.” “We’ll go back to being a model society based on the vision of the prophets of Israel, the conceivers and founders of the Zionist project,” Ben Shitrit added.
In the final speech of the evening, Zangauker urged the crowd to join the hostage families’ encampment outside the IDF’s Kirya headquarters a few blocks away, “where Netanyahu thinks he’ll run the war from.” “You need to be with me,” she insisted. “If there are thousands of tents encircling the Kirya, he won’t have a choice but to end the war and bring everyone home.”
Zangauker accused Netanyahu of violating the ceasefire agreement and reigniting the war for political reasons. Referring to US President Donald Trump’s threats against Hamas if they failed to release the hostages, she said, “Netanyahu didn’t open the gates of hell on Hamas today. He opened the gates of hell on our loved ones.”
{Matzav.com}The post Former Mossad Chief: Lengthy Hostage Releases Are a ‘Shameful Fraud Leading to Judenrat-Like Selektzia’ first appeared on Matzav.com.