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00:00Staying in the Middle East and pressure continues to mount on Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli government.
00:05On Thursday, around 1,000 Israeli Air Force staff, many of them reservists, published an open letter
00:11calling for an end to the war in Gaza and a return of the hostages.
00:15The IDF responded, though, saying all those involved in the publication would be fired from the Air Force.
00:22Long and Bershtekar has the story.
00:23Apologies. We do go straighter to unpack this news with Yossi Meckelberg.
00:32He joins us from London, where he's a senior consulting fellow at Menop Chatham House.
00:38Yossi, this is quite an astonishing response from the IDF, saying that they will fire these reservists.
00:43What kind of legal or procedural grounds do they actually have for dismissing these active reservists after this outspoken dissent?
00:51Good evening. Thank you for having me.
00:55They can dismiss them. They can't actually fire them, because this is a combination.
01:01Out of these 950, some of them are already long retired.
01:06Some of them are volunteering. They don't be part of the reserve.
01:10So, anyway, they volunteer.
01:12Others are reservists.
01:14And in this case, they can decide not to call them.
01:16So, from a legal point of view, they can't do it.
01:19But it shows the rift, the division that Netanyahu is showing in the Israeli society.
01:25And by the way, it's not only from soldiers from the Air Force.
01:30We are talking also today 250 from the intelligence, from all important 8,200 units, and from the medical corps.
01:40So, there is gathering some momentum.
01:44Now, despite what Netanyahu and the sycophants are saying, this was signed.
01:49They didn't say that they refused to serve.
01:51That is the way that Netanyahu and the coalition tried to portray them.
01:55What they say is that they did demand the war to stop and to advance the negotiation over the release of the hostages.
02:05But, again, as Netanyahu, he was by division, he was by incitement against certain segments of the Israeli society.
02:13That's what keeps him in power.
02:14But what does this fundamentally say about this rift?
02:17Because now there are questions about how this could also affect Israel's operational capabilities.
02:23I think there is no immediate danger of it.
02:25But if it gathers momentum and more and more people, we know that 70% of the Israeli society doesn't trust Netanyahu.
02:35They say time and again since the beginning of the war.
02:3870% of the Israeli society says that they want the hostages back as their top priority,
02:45not the war in Gaza, not the so-called total victory that Netanyahu is selling for 18 months now.
02:53They want to see the hostages back home and with that understanding that we'll have to end the war.
03:00And Netanyahu, because he's basically hijacked by the far right, he needs to stay in power because of his corruption trial that is taking place.
03:09He wants to stay forever as prime minister in power.
03:13And the far right tells him, if you don't continue the war in Gaza, we are leaving.
03:17They returned, at least one party returned to the coalition only after the resumption of the war in 18 of March.
03:25But on the other hand, if more and more people are crucial to the military force and the military power of Israel,
03:36decided to sign this letter, maybe even go further, then there is a real issue in Israel society.
03:42This in the backdrop of Netanyahu allows legislation to go through that exempt many, many thousands of ultra-orthodox not to serve.
03:54Yossi Mikkelberger, thank you so much for a dynamic response and just helping educate us on the latest situation there following that open letter.
04:03Well, that's all the news for now.
04:05Up next is Eye on Africa with Clarice Fortuné.
04:08Please stay tuned.