Civil war? Ex-Shin Bet director warns ‘blood will be shed’

Blood will be shed in the Israeli fight for the nation’s future in either a military or a judicial coup d’etat, former Shin Bet director Ami Ayalon assessed on Friday morning.

Speaking at the first Nahalal Conference for Democracy held in the northern Nahalal moshav, Ayalon noted that the judicial reform “which we call a coup d’etat is clashing with the refusal to serve which they refer to as a ‘military coup.’

“In this clash, blood could be shed,” he warned.

Ayalon calls on Israelis to ‘channel energy into a resolution’

According to Ayalon, the challenge facing Israel is to “channel all of that energy into a resolution.

“It cannot arrive from only one side,” Ayalon stressed. “If it does, then we have failed.”

Ayalon’s comments come amid tensions both in the Israeli military and the Knesset as the government seeks to overcome differences in negotiations for a new IDF draft law for haredim. Thousands of reservists have also announced their refusal to serve since the government began legislating its judicial reform.

On Thursday, Heritage Minister Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu (Otzma Yehudit) argued that the IDF must change to a volunteer military system and release all Israelis who do not wish to serve.

“Even if every Israeli gets drafted there will never be equality in the IDF,” the minister charged. “We have to release anyone who does not want to serve, turn the military into a professional one.”