While Syria burns, IDF general sits muzzled in court,

It may have been one of the most bizarre and unfortunate moments in court history.

IDF Operations Commander Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon personally came to the High Court of Justice to provide an in-depth classified intelligence picture of what the general public can only guess at regarding security threats Israel faces from the Gaza border crisis.

His being there at all was almost unheard of.

Seeing IDF officers at the High Court to provide context or intelligence happens from time to time, but usually the officers are lieutenant colonels or some other rank far below the IDF commander of all operations on every border.

The fact that he came, despite it being the same morning that Israel allegedly struck a major Iranian target in Syria, killing a large number of Iranians – and the tension that created around the northern border – was also striking.

Clearly, the government and the IDF were sending the High Court the message that they took seriously both complying with international law and a petition declaring that they are systematically violating those laws with aggressive open-fire rules on Palestinian protesters.

Only it seems like the court missed the point.

Alon sat through 90 minutes of a much less consequential hearing scheduled for the same time slot with nothing to do, and eventually left without getting to speak.

It is possible that, due to a legal fight between the petitioning human rights groups and the state about what Alon could tell the High Court in the absence of the petitioners, he might not have been given the opportunity to speak anyway, or would have been limited to certain topics.

This issue may even go to the heart of the petition as to whether IDF intelligence about potential Hamas threats or the lack of current immediate danger should frame the debate about the IDF’s use of force.

But there was no time for sorting through all that after the 90-minute delay, with neither the court nor the state attorney’s office figuring out that his limited time meant they needed to find a way for him to speak sooner.

According to a court spokeswoman, the court granted a last-minute request by the State Attorney’s Office to move their hearing earlier, but received no request prior to or during the 90-minute-long preceding hearing, to cut-off or pause that hearing so Alon could address the court.

So while Syria was burning and the region was like a hot kettle waiting to burst, Alon sat staring at the ceiling and his phone, until he slipped out without saying a word.