Don’t expect this outspoken Israeli general to hold fire in Australia

Major-General (retired) Noam Tibon, who is visiting Australia with his wife Gali for speaking engagements early next month, is not the type of person to say things just to please his audience.

Indeed, Noam’s role as keynote speaker along with Gali at the Union for Progressive Judaism’s annual UIA Progressive Appeal promises to be challenging to listeners both morally and politically if an interview he gave to The Jewish Independent offers any indication.

For one thing, Tibon finds Donald Trump’s plan to empty Gaza of all of its more than two million Palestinians to be a positive example of “thinking out of the box” that is in sync with the Netanyahu government and the clear majority of Jewish Israelis. But Israel’s leading human rights group, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) considers this, if implemented “a war crime and a crime against humanity.”

Interest in the outlandish Trump idea seems to be the only thing for which Tibon has common ground with Netanyahu, whom he bluntly describes as “the worst prime minister in the history of Israel”.

“He is the one responsible for the failure of October 7 and he needs to take responsibility and go away.”

Noam and Gali both played larger than life roles on October 7, 2023, with Noam rescuing his son Amir, his wife and two young daughters and others at Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the Hamas attacks. Gali ferried people wounded during the brutal surprise invasion to hospital. They had rushed from Tel Aviv in response to a call from Amir, a journalist at Haaretz who has since published a book, The Gates of Gaza, about his experience and the broader attacks.

In Tibon’s view, Netanyahu divided the country for political reasons and has severely damaged it with anti-democratic policies. “Netanyahu is playing survival mode where the main issue is Benjamin Netanyahu, not what is good for the state of Israel.”

He is livid at Netanyahu’s handling of the hostage issue, with both he and Gali fearing hostages will be left behind because of Netanyahu favouring his personal political and coalition interests over bringing everyone home. “What he is doing with the hostages is against our DNA, which is to help our brothers and sisters no matter where they are. It is also against the Jewish religion.”

“This is what people will remember of him. That he abandoned our brothers and sisters to torture and death.”

Tibon does not mention any concerns about what the Gaza civilians may go through if they are transferred from Gaza, which would almost certainly involve coercion, mass trauma and worse.

The main appeal of the idea, it seems, is that it would be a way of excluding Hamas from Gaza. “I think that what’s good in this plan of Trump is that it raised a new discussion about a solution for Gaza and I think it is very important to search for new ideas of how to solve this issue because we tried almost everything: we occupied Gaza, we had settlements there, we had military there and nothing worked, so we need to think out of the box.”

Tibon says that the idea is Trump’s, not Israel’s. In fact, Israeli media reports from December 2023 quote Netanyahu as giving instructions to minister for strategic affairs Ron Dermer to find ways to reduce Gaza’s population, while the Financial Times reported (in October 2023) that the Israeli leader lobbied EU countries to pressure Egypt to accept Gaza refugees. Defence Minister Israel Katz has reportedly followed up Trump’s statements by issuing orders to the army to draw up plans to implement the “voluntary” departure of Gazans from Gaza.

Tibon says there are still several options for post-war Gaza. “At the end of the day there are a few solutions on the table. On the one hand there is the solution of President Trump, to take them all out - this is an American plan, not an Israeli plan.”

The retired general then points to another possible pathway: “I think Israel, with Egypt and the moderate Arab countries, need to bring the right leadership to rebuild Gaza in a way that it won’t be a threat against Israel again.” He said there would be an important role for Saudi Arabia in this.

Asked what the future of the Gazans will look like if they are removed from Gaza, Tibon replied: “I don’t know. Nobody can give you an answer to this. The Trump plan is an idea with no details. Only when there are details can we discuss this.”

ACRI, in a statement last week, described Trump’s plans as “illegal and immoral”.

“Population transfers and ethnic cleansing are war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the group said.

Tibon’s views carry weight because of his security credentials. He served in the IDF for 35 years, beginning in special forces and later holding senior command positions, including the Nahal Brigade and the West Bank division.

Noam Tibon also stressed during his interview with TJI the perceived need to avoid a situation in which the Netanyahu coalition passes a bill formalising exemptions for haredim from military service. Israel simply cannot afford this from a security perspective, he said.

“Right now, the issue is a real need of the IDF. On October 7, we needed three more divisions to fight simultaneously in the north and south and to go back to the Israeli doctrine of short wars. Since October 7, there have been more than 800 fatalities and 12,000 wounded. That’s another division.”

“When you look at the future and at the security challenges, we’re going to need more soldiers,” he said.

Gali Tibon, an academic and award-winning novelist, said she is worried that Netanyahu will thwart the implementation of the second phase of the ceasefire, which would doom the remaining hostages. “My first priority is to bring the hostages home safety, those who are alive should be brought home alive. Israel was established to secure the safety of the Jews. Anything other than that is moving from the main target. People forget why we established the Jewish state in the beginning.”

She also criticized Netanyahu and his coalition for moving Israel towards dictatorship. “He’s leading Israel to be a dictatorship under Torah rule, very similar to Iran. If he goes on with very harsh dictatorship guidelines and the religious guidelines, I think we are going to end up more like Iran.”

She urged Reform Jews to make aliyah and thereby influence Israel’s direction and its attitude towards them. “If the Reform and Progressive Jews all over the world make aliya, they can change the situation. If not, they are already facing an Israel that doesn’t welcome them.”

She cited discrimination against women wanting to pray with a Torah at the Western wall and voiced concern about the Reform movement being effectively excluded from education and other budgets while the Orthodox received favoured treatment.

Gali Tibon added that she wonders “why do Reform and Progressive Jews all over the world give their money to organisations in Israel that are a direct pipe to the Orthodox part of Israel?”

“It’s a riddle,” she said, adding she would discuss the matter further when she arrives in Australia.

Noam and Gali Tibon will speak at UPJ events in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth from March 2-10.

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