The committee to implement lessons learned from the IDF's October 7 failings has not yet been established due to internal tensions between IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, and his deputy Maj.-Gen. Tamir Yadai, General Staff sources told Walla on Friday.
Zamer hours later, then called for the "establishment of an external and objective investigative committee to examine the October 7 failure at the national level, similar to the investigative committee established after the Yom Kippur War."
Zamir previously issued the instruction to appoint a committee that would implement the findings weeks ago, and the IDF reaffirmed that the committee, which is due to be headed by Yadai, "will be established," in a Thursday statement.
Members of Yadai's office approached several officials to serve on the committee, including officers who participated in the October 7 probes. However, some had not received the "green rating," which indicates a high level of investigative quality. This, therefore, aroused criticism from members of the General Staff.
The IDF did not clarify what the lesson-implementation process entails, the exact purpose of the committee once established, which corps and directorates it will operate in, or for how long.
Additionally, senior IDF officials expressed amazement that Zamir instructed the implementation of the Turgeman Committee's findings, but on the other hand, did not adopt the harsh criticism that Maj.-Gen. (res.) Sami Turgeman's findings leveled against senior IDF officials who were in command roles during the October 7 massacre.
Zamir settled for limited measures, mainly towards officers who had already resigned from their roles.
After Zamir called for an external committee to investigate the October 7 failures, Zamir wrote that "the IDF took responsibility and investigated itself, but the incident is not its sole responsibility and it would not be appropriate to direct all the spotlight only towards it," in a letter to IDF officers, and emphasized that such a committee is needed in order to "reach the truth and draw full conclusions." His letter to IDF officers was also based on the Turgeman Committee's findings.
Zamir added that such a committee should investigate "the interface between the political and military echelons, the political and security concepts that preceded the war, and the intelligence warnings that were presented to decision-makers, surveillance processes."
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Turgeman's committee not yet finished with investigations
It is noteworthy that Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Turgeman's committee, which is due to complete the initial work of Sami Turgeman's committee, has not yet finished its investigations. Initial IDF assessments indicate that the second Turgeman committee's findings are likely to cause a shakeup within the defense sector, given their critical assessment of the Oct. 7 events.
"The mechanism for implementing the lessons is being formulated these days and will be published soon," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit commented.