Jerusalem’s General Generates Jolt, Jabs at JCPOA  

Israeli military Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi on Tuesday made some extremely rare remarks, publicly opining on the United States’ foreign policy and urging the new White House administration not to sign a renewed nuclear deal with Iran. A return by President Joe Biden to anything resembling the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or Iran nuclear deal, would be “a wrong move both operationally and strategically, and should not be allowed,” Kochavi warned in his livestreamed address at the Institute for National Security Studies Conference. “Iran today is under immense economic pressure. These pressures must be maintained in any way possible, whatever happens,” he said. Israel’s top general went on to reveal the he has ordered the military to prepare “several operational plans” for preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which will be developed by the army in the coming months. Kochavi’s unusually explicit words aimed at Washington were condemned by some in Israel, who accused the general of inserting the normally neutral and guarded Israeli military into the political fray.