Political officer (Yisrael)

Young Kafet-track cadets drilling at the Royal Yisraeli Political Academy - Ashkelon, c. 2018.

A political officer (Modern Hebrew: קצין פוליטי), commonly referred to by its Hebrew acronym Kafet, is a supervisory rank of paramilitary officer in Yisrael, as part of the Royal Yisraeli Defense Forces as well as the security forces. They are responsible for the political education (e.g. ideological cohesion and loyalty) and organization of the unit they are assigned to, and are intended to ensure civilian control of the military. Most Kafetim are from the National Religious sector of Yisraeli society and products of the Royal Yisraeli Political Academy system.

History

The position was created in the early 1940s under the Autocracy regime, whose leaders were concerned about the loyalties and competences of the Yisraeli armed forces after the Third West Scipian War's "Long Pause" (cease-fire) in the mid-1940s, as the Sydalenes occupied the Yisraeli-ruled south bank of the Yarden River Valley and numerous Communist and liberal-democratic forces festered in parts of the enlisted and officer corps of the Royal Yisraeli Army. To purge the Army of these treasonous elements, General David Azoulay established the rank of "loyalty officer" to rout out these persons and to ensure the ideological and political loyalty as well as to inspire appropriate patriotic fervor among the Yisraeli military, much of which had been highly demoralized during the Long Pause.

Independent of this, since the 1919 Revolution, the Royal military had developed a so-called state within a state throughout the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, frustrating the political leadership. After Azoulay was overthrown in the Year of Blood, the new conservative-liberal political leadership of the Kingdom aimed to restore full civilian oversight over the military, which despite the fall of the Azoulay regime had attempted to maintain its own "deep state" among its officer corps and institutions. In 1954, the Knesset revived the rank of "loyalty officer" but renamed it "political officer" to shed it of its Autocracy-era connotations. Yisraeli leaders installed constitutional loyalists into these roles to dismantle the internal military deep state groups and leaders, which over the years yielded a military more compliant to the elected civilian government.

In the 1970s in reaction to the pro-Sydalene campaign of Christian terrorism, the position of Kafet was made paramilitary and applied to the security services such as the Shomrim and the Special Political Police.

Role and mandate

The political officer as a military rank is attached at every major unit grouping, from the company-level to the division-level. As a paramilitary rank, the position is attached to every major operational section in the security and police forces.

The role includes but is not limited to:

• Ensuring loyalty and ideological dedication among the military and paramilitary ranks;
• Boosting unit morale and productivity;
• Educating subordinates on important religious, political, and ideological topics;
• And other related tasks.

Countermanding superior orders

Kafetim have the extraordinary but limited power to countermand his unit commander's orders. If the political officer and the second-in-command believe with good cause that the commanding officer has unlawfully refused a proper order from a higher command, and/or has intimated through his actions or commands an intent to further an ideologically-prohibited view or action, the political officer and second-in-command may relieve him of command and countermand any unlawful orders he may have issued.

This has been rarely used. It came to the public consciousness during the 1974 Nakbar Affair and the 1991 Ein Gedi Incident on the Sydalon border.

See also

• Royal Yisraeli Defense Forces
• Royal Yisraeli Political Academy system
• National Religious sector