Defense Minister Israel Katz set off an extraordinary public collision with the military Sunday night, sparking outrage in the opposition and jubilance on the far right, as he denounced IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth and announced a replacement for him on live television.

The military quickly put out a sharp statement saying Bluth would remain in his post. The defense minister does not have the authority to unilaterally fire Bluth.

Speaking with the right-wing Channel 14 news, Katz said Bluth had contravened his policy by seeking to renew an administrative restraining order against a violent settler, and that this was unacceptable.

The settler, Tal Yinon Dardik, is suspected of a brutal March attack in Khirbet Humsa, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, where he, along with other extremist settlers, allegedly stripped a Palestinian victim, zip-tied his genitals, and paraded him around the village.

Dardik, who lives on a farming outpost in Area B in the West Bank, which is under Palestinian civil control, denies taking part in the incident. After breaching the restraining order instructing him to stay away from his outpost home, he was placed in a detention cell, where he has been on a hunger strike for weeks. In a highly unusual move, Katz met Dardik in late July in his jail cell.

Dardik’s arrest has generated protests among West Bank settlers, including far-right Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech, who have urged Katz and Bluth to release Dardik.

A week ago, Dardik’s restraining order was repealed on a technicality, and Katz instructed Bluth not to renew it. He said Bluth and the Military Advocate General’s Corps had filed an appeal to the court against the release of Dardik, “contrary to my policy.”

“They did it against my position. It was the wrong step. [The IDF’s West Bank commander] must take my policy into account, and I will insist on this,” Katz told Channel 14.

Katz declared that he had decided to appoint IDF Personnel Directorate chief Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa as the next Central Command chief, live on TV.

“Because I also want, in the Central Command, an IDF that strives for decisive victory, strikes its enemies, and protects the settlers,” he said. He also boasted that his “control over the [military] system is absolute.”

Bluth has been Central Command........

© The Times of Israel