IDF reaches scientists in Iran - but one deserter in Modi'in defeated the system | Avi Ashkenazi

Commentator Avi Ashkenazi describes last night's events in Modi'in as a collapse of governance: the IDF and police failed to arrest a religious deserter, while hundreds of Haredim acted violently. He claims the government abandoned security, and that deserters receive leniency while soldiers are worn down.

Military commentator Avi Ashkenazi analyzes last night's events (between Monday and Tuesday, October 5-6, 2026) in the city of Modi'in, defining them as "the beginning of the end of the State of Israel, as a Zionist, sovereign, and law-enforcing state." According to him, the IDF and Shin Bet can reach any point in Gaza, the West Bank, southern Lebanon, Syria, and targets in third-circle countries to arrest or eliminate terrorists and nuclear scientists, but they cannot arrest a religious deserter in an apartment building in Modi'in. Ashkenazi claims the police acted unprofessionally and fled instead of engaging and arresting the Haredi mob. He notes that since the beginning of the year, the IDF has arrested only about 300 deserters, some of whom turned themselves in, compared to the elimination of over 700 terrorists in Gaza and the arrest of over three thousand terrorists in the West Bank. He adds that only about a third of the arrested deserters are Haredi. Ashkenazi links the event to a broader loss of governance, including the abandonment of civil aviation security, the failure to establish a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 disaster, the erosion of reserve and regular soldiers, and the government's legislation of the deserter law. The analysis is charged with sharp rhetoric and uses dramatic comparisons between military capability in external arenas and failure in the domestic arena.