Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the letter as “baseless slander” and went on to say “this is an act that should be condemned…and that constitutes political exploitation of the Israeli Defense Forces”.

Israel’s defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon, ordered Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz to deal with the 43 reservists “as if they were common criminals”

Israeli Labor MK Shelly Yechimovich slammed the reservists on her Facebook page:

“Your defamatory words on directed bugging of ‘sexual conversations,’ and other nonsensical things have no link to reality. You are falsely slandering the other members of your unit. On Saturday, I spoke with a number of them, men no less moral than you. They feel ridicule and anger towards you. They told me that if you really participated in such an unusual and ugly event, of dimming the lights and listening as a group to intimate calls, why did you not just stop the bug in real time?”

Earlier this year, 19-year-old Israeli Udi Segal refused being drafted into the military and was sentenced to 20 days in military prison.