IDF officers: We have less freedom than terrorists

Senior Israel Defense Forces officers are outraged over the army's decision to prevent one of their number from traveling to Britain for fear he might be arrested as a war criminal, charging that leading Hamas terrorists now enjoy more freedom of movement than IDF officers.

On the advice of the military advocate general, Avihai Mandelblit, the IDF decided to bar Brigadier General Aviv Kochavi, the commander of the Gaza Division, from taking courses at Britain's Royal College of Defence Studies, lest left-wing activists seek an arrest order against him.

In September, former GOC Southern Command Doron Almog was forced to return to Israel from London without even getting off the plane after left-wing activists succeeded in obtaining such an order against him.

But the decision on Kochavi, first published in Haaretz on Sunday, sent shock waves through the army's high command, because it indicated that Almog's experience was not a one-time event.

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