Katz Announced a General’s Removal on Channel 14, and the IDF Reversed Him Within the Hour

On Sunday night, 2 August, Katz told Channel 14 that he was replacing Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, chief of Central Command and the army’s senior officer for the West Bank, and named a successor on air. According to the Times of Israel, the IDF “quickly put out a sharp statement saying Bluth… would remain in his post,” praising the general and stating that the announcement was “not coordinated” with Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir — and that “the defense minister does not have the authority to unilaterally fire Bluth.” The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit added that Zamir “has no intention of replacing commanders in key positions during this sensitive period.” Katz’s stated grievance was specific: per ToI, Bluth “had contravened his policy by seeking to renew an administrative restraining order against a violent settler,” Tal Yinon Dardik, whom ToI describes as suspected in a brutal March attack at Khirbet Humsa. The Jerusalem Post’s account of the same interview has Katz accusing Bluth of being “overly harsh” on settler violence while “neglecting the fight against Palestinian terrorism.”

By Monday Katz called the reported dismissal a “complete lie” and said Bluth is “performing his duties well” — while also claiming, per ToI, that Zamir had himself wanted Bluth replaced. That claim is Katz’s, relayed in part through “sources close to Katz,” and Zamir has not confirmed it in anything the brief captured. The alignment did not fall where the framing predicted. ToI’s Jeremy Sharon reports that settlement leaders “strongly criticize” Katz over the attempted removal; Katz met West Bank mayors and regional council heads on 3 August in a photograph distributed by his own ministry. Bluth has separately been “lambasted by left-wing groups” for a lax response to settler violence, per ToI. An opposition liveblog headline called the episode “an unprecedented lowpoint,” and ToI records both “opposition, allies call to oust Katz.” Channel 13 reported, without naming its sources, that Netanyahu called Katz’s conduct “obscene behavior.”

The durable consequence is procedural. ToI reports that Zamir on Monday “reportedly decided to freeze senior appointments in the military to protect the army from political interference, until at least after the general election that is set for October 27” — a companion subhead states it flatly, but the sourcing is Israeli-media relay, not an on-record IDF statement. ToI supplies the detail that makes the freeze nearly costless: most general staff roles run three to five years, “meaning that no officers will be required to stay on longer than usual if Zamir holds off on appointments until 2027.”

Assessment: Note the choice of venue. Katz went to Channel 14, the network whose own polling — per JNS — has put the coalition at up to 65 seats while mainstream surveys keep it in the low-to-mid 50s. That is an announcement made to a friendly audience rather than through the chain of command, which is why the walk-back arrived within a day. Two things to distrust: Katz’s assertion that Zamir wanted Bluth gone, which rests on his own account and unnamed associates; and the appointments freeze itself, still hedged with “reportedly” by the outlet reporting it. The tell worth watching is the settlement leaders' position. When the people the minister said he was protecting side with the general he tried to remove, the fight is about who commands, not about the settler.