Zamir Says “It Will Be Fine” Culture Contributed to October 7 Failures

IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said a culture of assuming that things would work out had contributed to the failures of October 7. In remarks released by the IDF on November 10, he urged officers to replace that approach with personal responsibility. Zamir spoke on Monday at the Rabin Center during a ceremony marking 31 years since the assassination of former prime minister and defense minister Yitzhak Rabin. Zamir told officers to say, “I am responsible.” He said commanders must know their soldiers and the enemy, listen, examine their assumptions and make decisions. He linked his criticism of the flawed command culture to warnings Rabin had given about complacency. Members of the General Staff Forum, participants in the Alon Command and Staff College course and Yonatan Ben-Artzi attended the ceremony. Their discussion drew on Rabin’s 1992 speech at the Command and Staff College graduation. It addressed responsibility for soldiers’ lives and accomplishing missions, alongside professionalism, initiative and personal example. Zamir traced Rabin’s service from the Palmach through command of the IDF and his roles as defense minister and prime minister. He praised soldiers’ courage and determination during three years of fighting since October 7 and called for comradeship among crews regardless of social or ethnic background. Describing Rabin’s assassination as a deep wound, he called for rejecting violence as a way to settle disagreements in Israeli society. He urged commanders to apply the day’s lessons in their daily responsibilities and future decisions.