President Isaac Herzog said Wednesday at the graduation ceremony of the National Security College that Israel’s security and law enforcement bodies are committed to the state and the public, not to any individual or political camp.
"The security and law enforcement bodies in the State of Israel are not loyal to a person or to one camp or another, but to the sovereign, the people in Israel, to the Israeli book of laws, and to the values of the Jewish and democratic state," Herzog clarified at the ceremony.
His remarks followed David Zini's comments, in which he explained why he accepted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer to serve as head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).
"The reason I agreed to the prime minister’s offer to take the position is that I felt I was more qualified than many others in the ability to be loyal to the elected echelon, no matter what opinion," Zini clarified.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir also addressed the ceremony, discussing the security challenges facing Israel and the need to expand the IDF’s ranks.
Zamir said Israel is in the midst of one of the most challenging periods the country and the defense establishment have ever faced, after more than two and a half years of continuous fighting that has reshaped the Middle East.
He again stressed the need to expand enlistment to the IDF as Basic Law: Torah Study advances. The bill is intended to equate the status of Torah students with that of those serving in the military.
"We must significantly expand the ranks of the IDF, so that it can meet all the missions imposed on it," Zamir said. "The responsibility is on all of us, the IDF needs everyone. We must not exempt anyone from the burden of the commandment of defending the state. This is an operational need and a Zionist and moral duty," Zamir clarified.
Zamir also addressed the October 7 massacre and the heavy price paid by the fallen, the wounded, the hostages, and their families.
'We are obligated to draw lessons, improve, and grow'
"October 7 and the thousand days of war that have passed since are not only a wound, they are our operational compass," he said. "They remind us every hour of the magnitude of the responsibility placed on the IDF and on the rest of the security organizations, and of the unbearably heavy price of personal and systemic failures and shortcomings."
"Out of this pain, we are obligated to draw lessons, improve, and grow," he emphasized.
Zamir praised the commanders who completed the course, saying they belong to a generation with extensive operational experience.
"You are an unprecedented generation of commanders," he said. "You arrived at the study benches with your shoes still covered in the dust of battle, carrying operational experience that few in the world have experienced."
Later in his remarks, Zamir highlighted the IDF’s achievements in the war.
'The enemy was struck hard'
"Between the background noise and the manipulations of tweets, responses, opinions, and interpretations, there is also a truth carved in stone: The IDF has brought unprecedented operational achievements in every arena in which it fought," he said. "The enemy was struck hard, we distanced existential threats, and our security situation is better."
However, Zamir said the campaign was still ongoing.
"Even if a new chapter opens, the campaign continues; it only changes form," he said. "We will continue to act with determination, initiative, operational cunning, and offensiveness."