All of those questioned about whether they were involved in producing the document passed polygraph tests when they denied involvement.Ashkenazi lauded the police announcement that no top IDF officer was involved in forging the Galant Document.On Thursday, he met with Israel Police Insp.-Gen. David Cohen and was updated on the investigation.“It is now clear that great damage has been caused to the IDF and that the accusations against the military were baseless,” Ashkenazi said. “I never believed that anyone in the IDF was involved in this affair.”Ashkenazi said that he planned to hold a special meeting of the General Staff to discuss ways to improve the IDF’s image and restore the people’s faith in the military.“We do not have the privilege to stop even for one moment the work we need to do to be prepared for the challenges that are still ahead,” he said.As a result of this finding, Attorney- General Yehuda Weinstein told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Barak that there was now no legal obstacle preventing them from choosing the next army chief.“In view of the vital public interest in choosing the next chief of General Staff quickly, as you explained to me, and given the interim police findings that were presented to me today, according to which there is no evidence of the involvement of any of the relevant major-generals in the preparation of the document, it can no longer be said that there are legal grounds for not choosing a new chief of General Staff,” Weinstein wrote to Netanyahu and Barak.The attorney-general explained on Thursday: “I reached this decision after studying the facts and determining the proper balance between the goal of conducting a thorough investigation and the vital public interest in preventing a delay in the appointment of a new chief of General Staff, and after it emerged that there was no basis for suspecting any of the major-generals relevant to the appointment process.”On August 8, the day Weinstein ordered police to investigate the document in response to the complaint lodged by media adviser Eyal Arad, he also told the prime minister and the defense minister that they could not appoint a new chief of staff while the police were trying to determine who was behind the document.During a hearing held at the Petah Tikva District Court on Thursday, held to discuss police requests for Channel 2 to hand over its copy of the document, state prosecutors received several versions of the forged document, from a number of sources.Prosecutor Dan Eldad said that should enough evidence be amassed for an indictment of a suspect or suspects, prosecutors might once again push to receive Channel 2’s copy of the document. When tracing a forged document, every copy made can lead investigators to the culprits, he said.Ben Hartman contributed to this report.
Barak to resume interviews for IDF head
All candidates to replace Ashkenazi exonerated in "Galant Affair."
All of those questioned about whether they were involved in producing the document passed polygraph tests when they denied involvement.Ashkenazi lauded the police announcement that no top IDF officer was involved in forging the Galant Document.On Thursday, he met with Israel Police Insp.-Gen. David Cohen and was updated on the investigation.“It is now clear that great damage has been caused to the IDF and that the accusations against the military were baseless,” Ashkenazi said. “I never believed that anyone in the IDF was involved in this affair.”Ashkenazi said that he planned to hold a special meeting of the General Staff to discuss ways to improve the IDF’s image and restore the people’s faith in the military.“We do not have the privilege to stop even for one moment the work we need to do to be prepared for the challenges that are still ahead,” he said.As a result of this finding, Attorney- General Yehuda Weinstein told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Barak that there was now no legal obstacle preventing them from choosing the next army chief.“In view of the vital public interest in choosing the next chief of General Staff quickly, as you explained to me, and given the interim police findings that were presented to me today, according to which there is no evidence of the involvement of any of the relevant major-generals in the preparation of the document, it can no longer be said that there are legal grounds for not choosing a new chief of General Staff,” Weinstein wrote to Netanyahu and Barak.The attorney-general explained on Thursday: “I reached this decision after studying the facts and determining the proper balance between the goal of conducting a thorough investigation and the vital public interest in preventing a delay in the appointment of a new chief of General Staff, and after it emerged that there was no basis for suspecting any of the major-generals relevant to the appointment process.”On August 8, the day Weinstein ordered police to investigate the document in response to the complaint lodged by media adviser Eyal Arad, he also told the prime minister and the defense minister that they could not appoint a new chief of staff while the police were trying to determine who was behind the document.During a hearing held at the Petah Tikva District Court on Thursday, held to discuss police requests for Channel 2 to hand over its copy of the document, state prosecutors received several versions of the forged document, from a number of sources.Prosecutor Dan Eldad said that should enough evidence be amassed for an indictment of a suspect or suspects, prosecutors might once again push to receive Channel 2’s copy of the document. When tracing a forged document, every copy made can lead investigators to the culprits, he said.Ben Hartman contributed to this report.