The morning of September 1, 2024 was one of the most painful that Israel has experienced since the Hamas attacks on October 7, when news emerged that six hostages – Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lonanov, Almog Sarusi, and Eden Yerushalmi – had been executed by their captors in the tunnels below the Gaza Strip. That evening, thousands upon thousands of people took to the streets of Israel, demanding that the government advance a release deal, to ensure that the remaining hostages did not meet a similar fate. At the same time, Israel’s Defense and Security Forum – known in Hebrew as Habithonistim – sent an open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his security cabinet, in which the forum urged the government not to go ahead with the hostage-release and cease-fire that had been on the table since late May. Signatories to the letter, including the head of Habithonistim, Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Amir Avivi, argued that withdrawing from the Philadelphi Route would allow Hamas to smuggle the remaining hostages out of Gaza, via tunnels into the Sinai – and from there to Iran. This would happen, they warned, “not within a matter of weeks but within days and possibly even hours.”

The next day, Netanyahu convened a press conference, at which he amplified exactly the same message. “The distance [to the Sinai] is nothing, it’s meters away,” the prime minister said. “They cross barriers […] and they disappear […] then they end up in Iran or Yemen.” In the days that followed, that message was reiterated time and time again by Netanyahu and his supporters, in the media and on social media, as one of the main arguments for insisting that Israel maintain control of the Philadelphi Route as part of any cease-fire agreement. It took just two weeks for these arguments to be proven to be false and that there was no proof of any Hamas plan to smuggle the hostages out of Gaza – as Ronen Bergman revealed in a report in Yedioth Ahronoth.

The open letter to the prime minister was not the first time that Avivi has raised the possibility that Hamas could try to smuggle the hostages out of Gaza. He also did so in February, May and one week before the murder of the six hostages, when he appeared on Channel 14. Indeed, an orchestrated influence campaign was launched just days after Habithonistim sent their open letter to Netanyahu and the cabinet raises, at the very least, some weighty questions.

The same goes for what Avivi said when he appeared on Channel 14, when he doubled down on his claim that Hamas wanted to smuggle the hostages to Iran – and also argued with the conviction of someone who appeared to have detailed security information that “there are thousands of Nukhba terrorists in the Sinai with tens of thousands of rockets,” who are just waiting for an opportunity to enter Gaza “and change the whole balance of power and everything that we have done until now.” This supposedly dramatic information was not mentioned before or after Avivi’s interview by any media outlet in Israel or the world. The Israeli military, too, is unaware of any such presence. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit told Shomrim that, “the IDF does not know of any Hamas-organized terror infrastructure in the Sinai.”

“I am not a pundit for the Israeli media,” Aviv tells Shomrim when asked about these comments. Since the outbreak of the war, however, he has become an integral part of it. According to data from the Yifat media research company, between October 7, 2023, and December 31, 2024, Avivi appeared around 2,255 times on various Israeli television and radio outlets – including interviews and appeared in articles. At a rough calculation, that comes out to around 150 media appearances every month or five broadcasts a day. (The figure is complicated somewhat by the fact that some of the interviews and articles are broadcast more than once). This level of exposure means that Avivi is a recognizable figure in almost every Israeli household and most of the time his messages are remarkably similar to those being relayed simultaneously by the prime minister.

For example, on June 7, a week after then-U.S. President Joe Biden published what would become known as the Netanyahu Plan for a cease-fire agreement with Hamas, Habithonistim sent another open letter to the prime minister, presenting their version of the terms and conditions that Israel should insist on as part of the deal. One of these conditions was that Israeli troops would remain deployed along the Netzarim Corridor and the Philadelphi Route in the long term. At almost exactly the same time, Netanyahu started to relay the same message. Up until that point, the Philadelphi Route had not been part of public or security discourse at all.

Last week, too, when a hostage-release deal was agreed and there was biting criticism from the right, Avivi and the other members of Habithonistim were quick to toe Netanyahu’s line. This is notwithstanding everything that the organization had said and written about the dangers of withdrawing from the Philadelphi Route in the past – which is supposed to happen in the second stage of the deal. “The atmosphere of oppression among some of the public and the leadership has to end,” Avivi posted on social media platform X. “A deal that will bring about the release of hostages serves a significant proportion of the war’s goals. Alongside the heavy price that Israel will pay, it also creates new opportunities on the ground; every change also generates opportunities.”

That same evening, Avivi appeared again on Channel 14, where he reiterated his support for the deal and concluded by lavishing praise on the prime minister: “There is only one person in Israel who sees the bigger picture, historic peace agreements and walking hand in hand with Trump to huge things.”

“I don’t buy the claim that Netanyahu is playing for time, for his own purposes, and that’s why the war is going on,” Avivi says. “He wants to win it. Elections in the middle of war would be dangerous.”

Avivi or Bibi? Spot the differences

The positions advocated by Habithonistim align closely with those of Netanyahu and the political messaging emanating from the Prime Minister's Office—not just on the issue of the hostages. When it comes to assigning blame for the October 7 disaster, Avivi’s answer, like Netanyahu’s, points to the Oslo Accords and the disengagement. Similarly, they share the same characterization of soldiers who threatened to abstain from reserve duty in protest against the government’s judicial overhaul as “refuseniks.” Habithonistim and Netanyahu are also united in their opposition to the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7 (see below), their support for the controversial dismissal of Yoav Gallant as defense minister, and their assertion that Israeli demonstrations embolden Hezbollah to fire rockets at Tel Aviv.

Habithonistim also vocally supports Netanyahu’s refusal to call a general election and to seek a fresh mandate from Israeli voters in light of the greatest failure in the state’s history. “We wish to warn that holding an election at this time would distance Israel from achieving total victory in the war,” wrote Avivi and Lt. Col. (Res.) Yaron Buskila, the CEO of Habithonistim, “in the name of 30,000 members of the Habithonistim movement.”

That was back in June, by now, too, after the deal with the Hezbollah terrorist organization, Avivi still believes this. “At the moment, we’re fighting a war, and we have to win it,” he tells Shomrim. “We are against elections in the middle of a war. After the war, all 120 [Knesset members] have to resign and go home.”

When is ‘after the war’?

“I don’t buy the claim that Netanyahu is playing for time, for his own purposes, and that’s why the war is going on,” Avivi says. “He wants to win it. Elections in the middle of war would be dangerous.”

What about the danger of firing the minister of defense in the middle of the war?

"I observed the relationship between Netanyahu and Gallant—whom I deeply respect—up close, and something felt off between them," Avivi says. "Despite what various critics might claim about us, we have no political affiliation with Bibi. We are an apolitical movement that presents its positions in a professional manner to both political and security decision-makers. For instance, we advocate for recruiting 8,000 ultra-Orthodox men annually, a stance that is entirely at odds with the government’s position and could even threaten to topple Netanyahu’s government. So how can anyone claim that we always support Bibi?"

Whether or not their support is constant or not, Habithonistim changed its tune on the issue of the cease-fire in Lebanon in fairly short order, quickly toeing Netanyahu’s line. A month before the cease-fire was announced, Habithonistim published a passionate position paper called “Turning Point in the North: Prospects for the Israel-Hezbollah War,” the first recommendation of which was the “outright decimation of Hezbollah as a relevant fighting force.” Shortly after the cease-fire was announced, the heads of local councils and residents of northern Israel expressed their criticism of it, since they understood that, even after they were able to return to their homes, Hezbollah would remain a military threat on the border. Avivi, who just weeks earlier had called for “outright decimation,” was suddenly a lot less belligerent and a lot more flexible in his arguments. He added his voice to the chorus of support for the deal, “given the intention to have a 60-day cease-fire on the northern border.”

"I observed the relationship between Netanyahu and Gallant—whom I deeply respect—up close, and something felt off between them," Avivi says. "Despite what various critics might claim about us, we have no political affiliation with Bibi."

The antithesis of the center-left security movements

Avivi, 55, served as an officer in several positions in the Combat Engineering Corps. During the second intifada, he was director of the Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon’s bureau. Although he continued to climb the ranks of the IDF, he did not reach the top; he never served as a division commander or as Chief Engineering Officer and his last role, having reached the rank of brigadier general, was as Deputy Comptroller of the Security Forces – a position he held for four years. In February 2020, after a short stint as CEO of a company called 10 Dimensions, he set up Habithonistim. During its first year of operation, the association had a budget of just 800,000 shekels ($225,000). It more than doubled in 2021, to 1.7 million shekels, and in 2022, to 4 million shekels. By 2023, Habithonistim’s budget had already reached 9.7 million shekels ($2,700,000). Most of this funding comes from overseas donations, including from the Falic family, which is known to have very close ties to Netanyahu. (See below).

Dozens of senior former officers are listed as members of the association, but what sticks out is that there are very few major generals and even fewer major generals who served as GOCs or as the commanders of prestigious divisions. Avivi says that this is because, for years, the army did not promote officers whose opinions differed from the mainstream. One of the exceptions is the former commander of the Navy, Admiral (res.) Eliezer Marom, who – coincidentally or not – was appointed by Netanyahu as the coordinator for the rehabilitation of the north until he recently resigned.

Avivi and other senior members of the organization make no secret of the fact that Habithonistim was established to serve as an antithesis to the movements started by former defense officials who identify with the center-left of the political map – movements like the Council for Peace and Security, which later became Commanders for Israel’s Security. Over the years, these movements have been highly critical of Netanyahu on occasion, with figures like former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, former Shin Bet director Ami Ayalon and deputy IDF chief of staff Matan Vilnai all speaking out.

“For years, IDF officers represented a hegemony, an aging generation that saw things in a way that was disconnected from the developing reality,” Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Gershon Hacohen, the chairman of Habithonistim’s board of directors and one of its founders, tells Shomrim. “Therefore, we needed to establish a new movement that would present a ‘second opinion’ on security issues. We, for example, believe that the establishment of a Palestinian state would be a disaster.”

Since leaving the IDF, Hacohen has been identified as a right-wing figure who has no qualms about expressing opinions that fall far outside the mainstream, including his dream of rebuilding the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Another member of the movement, a former National Religious Party lawmaker, Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Effie Eitam has kept in close contact with Netanyahu since leaving the military.

Then there is Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Yiftah Ron-Tal, who once had aspirations to lead the Habayit Hayehudi party. He has also remained in personal touch with Netanyahu and, according to reports a decade ago, the prime minister considered him as a candidate for the position of police chief. Incidentally, both Ron-Tal and Eitam fell into line with Netanyahu this week and came out in support of the hostage deal. Eitam expressed his support of the cease-fire agreement, saying that getting the hostages back was part of the goals of the war. Ron-Tal said that Israel would not lose its deterrence capability as a result of the deal.

Ron-Tal is also a member of a committee established in June 2023 by Itamar Ben-Gvir, who recently resigned as national security minister, to examine the possibility of setting up a National Guard in Israel. Among the other members of that committee are Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Shalom Katabi, who is listed as a member of Habithonistim’s board of directors, and Col. (Res.) Efraim Laor, who appears as a member of the organization’s advisory board. Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Netanel Cohen, the former director-general of the Communications Ministry under Likud ministers Ayoub Kara and Dudi Amsalem, is also listed as a member of the advisory board. So, too, is Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Eliav Dikshtein, whose brother, Tzachi, is Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s bureau chief.

Another member of Habithonistim’s advisory board is Prof. Limor Samimian-Darash, who, in 2015, was supposed to be a candidate on the Likud slate for the election, but in the end, was not. There are also people who do not have an obvious political affiliation – people like Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Yossi Bachar or Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Zvika Haymovitz, the former commander of the Air Defense Division. One relative newcomer is Eyal Gabai, who served between 2009 and 2011 as director-general of the Prime Minister's Office under Netanyahu. Gabai, who is also chairman of the Meuhedet MHO, is listed as head of economics for the movement and, according to Avivi, his role is to develop this area of expertise.

Does that mean that Habithonistim will soon be publishing position papers on social and economic matters, like the Kohelet Forum, for example. Gabai declined to respond to Shomrim’s request for comment.

Ron-Tal remained in personal touch with Netanyahu and, according to reports a decade ago, the prime minister considered him as a candidate for the position of police chief.

Up to 10 meetings with Netanyahu during the war

One of the leaders of Habithonistim told Shomrim that, when the organization was established, the founding members made it clear to Avivi, at the start of the journey, that they would resist any attempts to politicize the movement – and that he guaranteed not to do so. Has this commitment withstood the test of time? Last month, Channel 12 reporter Daphna Liel reported that Netanyahu was considering setting up a new party, to be called Habithonistim, which would be led by Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Ofer Winter and would also include members of Avivi’s organization. According to the report, the goal was to steal votes away from any party that former prime minister Naftali Bennett might consider establishing in the future.

The report reverberated through the organization’s WhatsApp groups and some members contacted Avivi to ask about it. He told Shomrim that, “Habithonistim movement will never be political. Will there be many senior officers among us who enter politics? I very much hope so. The organization’s activities create a lot of significant exposure for people – some of whom did not need to do it for the exposure and some for whom this is their only exposure. With regard to the report itself, I am not aware of any senior official in our group who was approached.”

With or without an approach, Avivi himself does not rule out entering the political arena. “Before October 7, it never crossed my mind even once to enter politics,” he says. “But that event shook everything up. Today, I tell myself not to rule anything out. When the time comes, I will think about it, because I have lost my faith in this system – in its entirety. And if it happens, it will be in the framework of a new party, because I cannot stand the existing parties. I don’t feel a connection to any of them.”

Only time will tell what will happen with Habithonistim, but recent history could provide some indication. Shomrim can reveal that, in the almost 16 months since the war started, Avivi, along with other senior members of Habithonistim, has met between eight and 10 times with Netanyahu. Just for the sake of comparison: Commanders for Israel’s Security have not had a single meeting with Netanyahu over the past five years, nor have researchers from the Institute of National Security Studies. Another organization – Mivtachi: The National Commanders Forum, which was founded in 2015 by former Likud MK and deputy IDF chief Maj.-Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan – has also not met with Netanyahu over the past five years.

Netanyahu also showed his affinity for Habithonistim at the organization’s annual conferences, which he has twice addressed by video. The first time was some five months before the October 7 attack and the second was in January 2024, just three months into the war. Netanyahu also met twice with representatives of Habithonistim before the war. The first meeting was in June 2020, when the security agenda was dominated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s so-called Deal of the Century, which included the establishment of a Palestinian state in part of the West Bank. This clashed fundamentally with the main idea that Habithonistim has been promoting since its foundation: the annexation of the Jordan Valley to Israel. Another meeting came two years later, this time with Mossad chief David Barnea, some two weeks before the 2022 elections. At the time, Habithonistim was waging an intensive campaign against the gas agreement that the Bennett-Lapid government had signed with Lebanon. In the meantime, Habithonistim also found the time to oppose bringing the United Arab List into the government.

“Because the DNA of Habithonistim is more right-wing, they have a connection to the prime minister,” says Maj. Gen. (Res.) Kamil Abu Rokon, who is listed as a member of the organization’s advisory board but says that he is not an active member. Abu Rokon, the former Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, now has reservations about the organization’s position. For example, he has much to say about a position paper published last month on the IDF’s proposed “humanitarian islands” in the Gaza Strip. “The humanitarian issue has been a badge of shame from the outset,” he says. “It is a huge lever that they did not know how to manage. It’s because no one wants to talk about ‘the day after.’ There are stages to occupying territory. Stage One, is basic humanitarian things like water, food, and medicine. The last stage is mechanisms of education, healthcare and so on. They are trying to talk about Stage One and say that there is a new boss, but it is actually the gradual imposition of a regime. It doesn’t matter what you call it, in the end, you’re responsible.”

“Because the DNA of Habithonistim is more right-wing, they have a connection to the prime minister,” says Abu Rokon, who is listed as a member of the organization’s advisory board but says that he is not an active member.

Gaza Nakba and Shin Bet conspiracy

According to Avivi, Habithonistim’s positions were formulated in consultation with a small number of senior officials, some of whom are members of the advisory board. These consultations lead to the publication of position papers, which represent the organization’s official position. So, for example, the group’s website also published the letters that it sent to Netanyahu in June and September.

Like in the case of Abu Rokon, who now opposes some of the organization’s positions, there are several members of the advisory board and others who explained to Shomrim that they are not at all active in the organization. One of them is Maj. Gen. (Res.) Yossi Bachar, a member of Kibbutz Be’eri whose mother was murdered in the October 7 attack and who has been serving in the reserves as deputy GOC of the Southern Command. Bachar has never had any public political affiliation, but he says that he does support the general positions of Habithonistim, which he says are center-right on security issues. He says that apart from a handful of occasions when he participated in Zoom meetings, he has not been active in the organization. The last such meeting was around 18 months ago when the forum discussed Hezbollah erecting a tent on Mount Dov. “You can rest assured,” he told Shomrim, “that I have no intention of joining a political party led by Ofer Winter.”

Another senior officer who appears as a member of Habithonistim’s advisory board is Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Deddi Simchi, who, like Avivi, has also been making nonstop appearances in the Israeli media since October 7, when his son, Guy, a paratrooper, was killed in the battle for Kibbutz Re’em. Simchi, according to Yifat media research company, has made 1,400 media appearances during the course of the war – almost 100 a month. In the vast majority of them, however, he was not presented as representing Habithonistim. He told Shomrim that “Habithonistim is an excellent movement,” but said that since October 7 he has not been active in it. According to Avivi, Simchi continues to express his views in Habithonistim’s private WhatsApp groups.

While some members describe themselves as inactive, there are others, speaking on condition of anonymity, who have expressed their dissatisfaction with the direction the movement is heading. “Habithonistim started as an apolitical movement, but it is gradually being identified as more and more political,” one of them says, adding that he has refrained from appearing in the media as a Habithonistim representative in order not to be politically labeled. “There was talk about resettling the Gaza Strip, about another Nakba – as well as many racist comments. These are things that I completely do not identify with. At first, I thought that it was something different – a center-right security organization – but more soft right.”

Simchi told Shomrim that “Habithonistim is an excellent movement,” but said that since October 7 he has not been active in it. According to Avivi, Simchi continues to express his views in Habithonistim’s private WhatsApp groups.

A soldier dies in vain? ‘We won’t put out a position paper over every nonsense’

Avivi, for his part, explains that the organization is open to a wide range of opinions among its members and that those who appear on television as representatives of Habithonistim do not necessarily represent its views. He says that the only television interviews that represent its views are those which are subsequently posted on its website and on its social media channels. “Any issue that we believe is not widely agreed upon is an issue that we will not get into at all,” Avivi says. “There are certain boundaries. For example, the issue of judicial reform. We didn’t get into that at all.”

What about a controversial military issue, one that a security-oriented organization like Habithonistim would be expected to have a clear public position on? Like, for example, the case of Ze’ev Erlich, the archeologist who was allowed to enter Lebanon as a civilian with a military escort, leading to the death of Sgt. Gur Kehati. “I had the opportunity to speak about that in the media,” Avivi says. “We are immensely proud of the value of volunteerism from people who want to have an impact, and, on the other hand, you cannot simply take a civilian onto the field of battle. We will not be dragged into addressing this. We deal with national security in the broadest sense. We will not put out a position paper on every nonsense.”

Hacohen, the chairman of the advisory board, presents a different vision of Habithonistim’s agenda. “There is no such thing as ‘the organization’s position’,” he says. “It’s an open organization. Nobody appears on television with a list of messages. When it comes to the resettlement of Gaza, for example, we do not have a position. True, that means that we also do not object to resettling it. There are arguments both ways. Settling the Land of Israel is always good, but you have to ask when and how. It has to be an event for the People of Israel, not sections of it. That’s our position, or, more accurately, the spirit of the movement.”

What about a state commission of inquiry? Habithonistim may not have published a position paper on the matter, but it is no surprise that Avivi’s position is remarkably close to the prevalent view within Likud, including those same ministers who supported the move in the immediate aftermath of October 7. “There should be an inquiry,” says Avivi, who, as mentioned earlier, served as Deputy Comptroller of the Security Forces. “The composition, who will head it – that’s a different question. I am more concerned about what it is going to investigate. An inquiry has to decide about things that happened 30 years ago. We plan on establishing our own inquiry if we’re not happy with the one the government sets up.”

This is not enough for Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Yitzhak “Gerry” Gershon, one of the founders of Habithonistim who is listed as a member of the advisory board on its website. “I am no longer involved in that organization, and I also have reservations about some of the opinions there,” he says. “I was very attracted to the initial nature of Habithonistim – apolitical, Zionist, unaffiliated, with an emphasis on our insistence that Israel keep control of the Jordan Valley.

“I am vehemently opposed to the resettlement of Gaza,” he adds. “It’s an issue that never came up within the organization. I am in favor of ending the war and getting the hostages home as quickly as possible. As for a state commission of inquiry, I don’t know what their official position is, but I believe that reality obliges one. I think that a country that cherishes life, in the aftermath of the greatest failure in its history, must set up a state commission of inquiry the goal of which is to ensure or reduce the chances of something similar happening again in 25, 30 or 50 years.”

“I am no longer involved in that organization, and I also have reservations about some of the opinions there,” says Gershon. “I was very attracted to the initial nature of Habithonistim – apolitical, Zionist, unaffiliated."

100,000 from the Falic family and a visit to Mar-a-Lago

As already mentioned, Avivi does not rule out entering politics and, in practice, is already laying the groundwork. Here, too, the connection with Netanyahu is evident. Last month, Avivi visited U.S. President Donald Trump’s Florida headquarters in Mar-a-Lago and even posted about it on social media. “I’m wrapping up two busy weeks of events and meetings in the United States with a meaningful night at Mar-a-Lago, the home and fortress of President Trump, which is also an exclusive club frequented by the who’s who,” he posted along with a photograph of him alongside former boxing champion Mike Tyson. “Washington might be the official decision-making capital, but Mar-a-Lago is the new nerve center of the American nation.”

Avivi would not reveal to Shomrim how he managed to get an invitation to Mar-a-Lago but claimed that it had nothing to do with Netanyahu or anyone close to him – not to the Falic family, which, as Shomrim can now reveal, has donated money to Habithonistim. The 100,000-shekel ($27,000) donation was made in 2022 through a company Pitaro Hecht, which is owned by the Falic family. Other donations have come from Orbs, owned by cryptocurrency activists Daniel and Uriel Peled, but most of the organization’s budget comes from overseas donations, via the Central Fund of Israel, which acts as a funnel for donations to Israeli organizations with right-wing affiliations – including some far-right groups.

According to Avivi, habu uses the Central Fund for Israel because it does not charge a commission. He says that there is no single major benefactor but, rather, a wide variety of donors. Shomrim looked into some of them and found that they are mainly right-wing Americans who support Trump. On Avivi’s résumé also appear meetings with newly installed Vice President Jordan Vance and the new U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Alice Stefanik, whom he met when they were both members of Congress.

Avivi says that Habithonistim has far-reaching aspirations. It plans on setting up a pre-military academy on Moshav Tkuma, in the Gaza envelope, and has already launched a fundraising campaign to do so. The tagline for the campaign is “Building the next General Staff.” Incidentally, one of the people employed to raise funds for Habithonistim is Oded Ben-Ze’ev, who was Netanyahu’s neighbor in Caesarea and testified for Sara Netanyahu when the prime minister’s wife was sued by her housemaid, Lilian Peretz.

Another connection is Netanyahu’s brand-new spokesperson, Dr. Omer Dostri who, until a few months ago, was a researcher for Habithonistim. On August 4, Netanyahu announced that he planned on appointing Dostri as his spokesperson. Three days later, Dostri published an article on Habithonistim’s website – his last one – without disclosing that the author had just been appointed as the prime minister’s spokesperson.

Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to this article: