IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gadi Eizenkott informed Brig.-Gen. Ofer Winter that he will not be the prime minister’s military secretary.

Winter was one of the candidates to be appointed military secretary in lieu of Brigadier-General Eliezer Toledano, who is to be appointed commander of the Gaza division, even though Winter’s name was not included in the list of candidates for the position.

According to the report in Yisrael Hayom, the list included three names: the commander of the Gaza Division, Brigadier-General Yehuda Fuchs, the commander of the Bashan (Golan) Brigade, Brigadier-General Yaniv Asor; and the commander of the fire brigade, Brig.-Gen. Uri Gordin, who interviewed the three of them weeks ago, but did not select any of them and did not inform the chief of staff that he wanted to meet additional candidates for the job.

According to the report in Haaretz by Yossi Wertner, Chief of Staff Eizenkott in recent weeks has given Netanyahu the names of three brigadier generals, all of whom are division commanders: Yehuda Fuchs (Gaza Division), Yaniv Asor (The Golan Division) and Uri Gordin (the fire brigade), but Netanyahu has yet to decide and chose one of the candidates.

According to Werter, the reason Netanyahu is not in a hurry to choose one of the candidates proposed by Eizenkott is that he is determined to appoint Winter to the post. Werter does not overlook the personal ties of the esteemed officer with the chairman of the Bayit Yehudi party, Minister Naftali Bennett, and says that Netanyahu’s desire to appoint Bennett’s friend raises eyebrows.

YWN-ISRAEL adds that in addition, Winter was a classmate of Eli Groner, who now serves as the Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office. They were classmates when they attended Yeshivat Bnei David, the mechina in Yishuv Eli.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)