Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a festive toast this evening, at Ben-Gurion’s house at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv,, in honor of the Jewish New Year with the IDF General Staff Forum.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
“The proven ability of our military, of this forum, to carry out many missions simultaneously, this ability is going to be challenged as it has never been.

We know what is going on around us and what is raging around us. Until today, I think that we have navigated things with both daring and responsibility, just as the Chief-of-Staff has described, on many fronts, on occasion simultaneously. But not in an overall confrontation.

I rely on you. I appreciate you and I also challenge you. Have a good year.”

IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi:
“I have been in this forum for many years and I have also been in decision-making forums in various positions, and certainly in my president position. I tell this forum, I say to you all – making decisions is professional, substantive and sagacious. All of us, without exception, make the decisions according to the good of the State of Israel when considerations of security of the State of Israel alone are what dictate the parameters according to which we judge reality.

I will digress slightly from protocol. I would like to express great appreciation for the National Security Council, given that the head of the NSC is here, including thanks for the cooperation. There is a very, very good sense of cooperation here both with Meir personally and with his people. We simply work together.

I allow myself to take advantage of this opportunity to thank Udi, the Director General of the Defense Ministry. The IDF and the Defense Ministry are truly united. Simply put, they are close based on deep solidarity.

Recent weeks are an outstanding example of the term ‘Israel Defense Forces’. This is a military that defends our people. This is a military that defends our country. Remember how many infiltrations to the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip we have thwarted, how many terrorist attacks we have foiled and are foiling on a daily basis in Judea and Samaria, including war materiel, how many threats we have thwarted in the north, or how we took action elsewhere that it would be better to remain silent about. This is the Israel Defense Forces. And it is more than symbolic that we are sitting in Ben-Gurion’s house, the same Ben-Gurion for whom the IDF was truly the apple of his eye and so dear to him.”

Photo: Ariel Hermoni, Ministry of Defense