Top officials, including MK Tally Gotliv (Likud), reacted to the temporary disappearance of former IDF military advocate-general Maj.-Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi on Sunday, with the Knesset member indicating that “her suicide attempt” was a ruse to “regain control of the narrative.”
Authorities spent at least an hour looking for Tomer-Yerushalmi in the earlier evening on Sunday before she was located, alive and unharmed, at a Tel Aviv beach.
Tomer-Yerushalmi had resigned on Friday after writing in her resignation letter that she had approved leaking a video to the N12 news site that depicted IDF soldiers reportedly sexually assaulting and abusing a Palestinian detainee.
Gotliv wrote on X/Twitter that Tomer-Yerushalmi’s “place is behind bars. Her ‘suicide attempt’ was nothing more than a ploy to regain control of the narrative, to shift the disgrace of her actions away from the main headlines, and once again, to smear the right-wing.”
The Knesset member further said that “this suicide attempt was nothing more than a way to obscure the horror and the scope of the lies by the top brass of the IDF Military Prosecution and the involvement of the attorney-general and those close to her.”
“Someone who conspires to commit a crime, tampers with judicial proceedings, and breaches trust belongs behind bars. It is also incumbent to examine the feasibility of a state witness agreement being reached with Tomer-Yerushalmi... an idea many fear,” Gotliv added.
'Outrageous obstruction of the investigation': Guy Levy
Separately, the Likud’s spokesperson, Guy Levy, attributed the former military advocate-general’s disappearance to Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara in an X post, before Tomer-Yerushalmi was found.
“All this madness we’re seeing now is a direct result of the outrageous obstruction of the investigation that the attorney-general has been carrying out for over two weeks. She hasn’t suspended the military advocate-general, hasn’t taken her mobile devices, hasn’t taken her statement, and hasn’t even placed her under protective detention,” Levy said.
“The attorney-general must be detained and brought in for questioning tonight,” he added.
Responding directly to Levy, MK Gilad Kariv (the Democrats), wrote on X: “Likud spokesman Guy Levy, who acts at the command of his master, is a wicked and vile person, a rusted, twisted cog in the poison machine.”
“As long as this man serves as the spokesman of the ruling party, Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and the party’s ministers bear direct responsibility for the filth he spreads,” Kariv added.
Other politicians and opposition MKs slammed the Likud’s response to Tomer-Yerushalmi’s disappearance.
Blue and White chair Benny Gantz posted, “This is a wake-up call. We all need to stop and engage in some soul-searching.”
Former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot (Yashar!) wrote that “incitement and inflammatory rhetoric are tearing Israel apart from within; they are a sin both against the individual and against the state.”
“Let’s put an end to the culture of incitement. Let’s return to sanity,” he continued.
Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) responded to the finding of Tomer-Yerushalmi alive and well: “Good news. Human life is above all else.”