Brig. Gen. (Res.) Ofer Winter Attacks Herzi Halevi: ‘You Are a Confused Chief of Staff’

Photo Credit: Flash90

Brig. General (res.) Ofer Winter speaks on Jerusalem Day in Ariel, June 4, 2024.

Brigadier General (reserve) Ofer Winter reveals in an exclusive interview on Kan11 to be broadcast on Sunday, with Roni Koban and Omri Assenheim that the IDF Chief of Staff opposed his appointment to the post of military advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite a request made by Netanyahu.

“If I were the Prime Minister – his head would be cut off,” Winter says in the interview, adding, “Who are you, insolent brat, who are you?”

“Five days before the war, the Chief of Staff tells me, ‘The Prime Minister is asking for you for the post of his military secretary. I think you’re not suitable. I ask you to resign and besides, I think the Prime Minister’s request is irrelevant.’”

Halevi was among the small, exclusive group of heads of security agencies who on the night before October 7, 2023, decided not to alert PM Netanyahu regarding the accumulating indications of a Hamas attack, most likely because they wished to prevent the PM from starting a war. Halevi’s attitude about the PM’s request for Winter as his military secretary came from the same corner of hubris and self-aggrandizement.

“If I were the prime minister, his (Levi’s) head would be cut off. Who are you, insolent brat? Who are you? You’re confused! You’re a confused Chief of Staff. You are subordinate to the Prime Minister and the political echelon – who are you anyway?” Winter exclaims in the interview.

Halevi’s hatred for Winter, like the hatred of most of the IDF top brass, goes back to an event that followed August 22, 2013, when Winter was appointed commander of the Givati Brigade. He then led the brigade in the 2014 Operation Protective Edge. At the beginning of the operation, on July 9, 2014, Winter issued a Commander’s Page for Battle he wrote to the brigade’s soldiers, in which he wrote:

“History has chosen us to be at the forefront of the fight against the fierce Gazan terrorist enemy, who defies, curses, and reviles the God of Israel’s armies. I lift my eyes to the heavens and call with you, Shema Israel, Hashem Eloheinu, Hashem Echad, please make our path successful, as we go and stand to fight for Your people Israel against the enemy who blasphemes Your name.”

The commander’s references to the Gentiles who defile the name of the God of Israel went back to the Biblical scene of David’s fight against Goliath. The commander’s page was published in the media and sparked a debate about the place of religion in the Jewish army. The IDF brass never forgave Winter’s slip into a religiously-inspired daily order, and his path for advancement, like that of several other religious officers, was blocked.

Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi informed Winter last May of his decision to release him from service in the IDF, and not promote him to a position with the rank of major general. Winter was not included in the next round of appointments, and in fact, in the period since he ended his position as commander of the 98th Division, he did not hold an official position.

In an earlier interview, Winter declared that Chief of Staff Halevi had lost the moral authority to serve in his position. “I am a soldier of the people of Israel, I live by the faith of our ancestors and I am not ashamed of it,” Winter said, adding, “There are commanders in the IDF that I know who have taken off their kippahs because it is uncomfortable to walk around with a kippah.”