By Yaakov Lappin
Moshe Yaalon
"Speak out even (click here) if your comments are not part of the mainstream, and even if they stand in contrast with the ideas adopted by the senior command, or the government."
IDF Commanders (click here) should continue to speak their minds on issues of morality and ethics, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said Sunday in Tel Aviv, in an apparent reference to the controversy that followed the Holocaust Memorial Day speech made by Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan.
"This evening, I call on you and your subordinates, once again, to keep speaking your minds. Do so even if your comments are not part of the mainstream, and even if they stand in contrast with the ideas adopted by the senior command, or the government," Ya'alon said at an event attended by foreign military attaches at the Defense Ministry.
Earlier this month, Golan provoked controversy after saying that he was concerned by some the extremist voices within Israeli society. The IDF later issued a clarification saying that Golan did not mean to compare extremism in society in Israel to 1930s Germany.
"Do not fear, do not hesitate. Continue to be brave, not only on the battlefield, but also at the conference table," Ya'alon said on Sunday.
"A good military is one in which commanders, junior and senior, feel secure in their ability to speak their mind any time, knowing they will not be harmed," he added....
