Daily Briefing Mar. 13: IDF head's corrected gaffe underscores conflicted military

Editor David Horovitz on botched dismissal of Tel Aviv’s top cop, whether now is the time for a constitution; military correspondent Emanuel Fabian on Thursday’s terror attack

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Editor David Horovitz and military correspondent Emanuel Fabian join host Amanda Borschel-Dan on today’s episode.

On Thursday night, while Or Asher, Rotem Mansano and Michael Osdon, were on the way to a friend’s wedding, a 23-year-old Palestinian terrorist opened fire on them outside a Tel Aviv cafe. Fabian updates on the status of the three friends and on the investigation into the planning of the attack.

As Horovitz noted in an op-ed he wrote following the Tel Aviv attack and a Thursday night speech by President Isaac Herzog, it fell to the newly dismissed Tel Aviv police chief Amichai Eshed to oversee the aftermath of the shooting. What is the broader significance of Eshed’s dismissal and the ripple of controversy since?

Amid the apparently growing unrest among reservists, over the weekend, IDF chief Herzi Halevi made the comment, “a secure dictatorship is better than an unprotected anarchy.” What is the context of this statement, which he has since walked back?

On Friday, head of the opposition Yair Lapid released a statement again calling for a formal constitution. In addition to codifying the Declaration of Independence, the Lapid constitution would also include three overarching laws: a declaration of the supremacy of the country’s Basic Laws, a determination of the number of Haredi men that Israeli society and the economy can support in full-time study and a definition of the possibilities for judicial review of Knesset legislation. Horovitz weighs in.