IDF: Important military objective achieved
Senior official in IDF Research Department in discussion in Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee: 'Deployment of UNIFIL in its full force will take months, it's not clear how many. Until then, IDF will remain in field.' At start of meeting, Chairman Hanegbi said: 'A culture of judgment that is characteristic of the guillotine operators in the French Revolution has, and not our own culture has developed.' Committee members to Ynet: 'Halutz looks as if his world has crumbled'
A senior officer in the IDF's Research Department said in the meeting, "Deployment of UNIFIL in its full force will take months, it's not clear how many. Until then, the IDF will remain in the field." Another officer in the Operations Department said in the same meeting, "Israel achieved two important objectives: Destruction of the 'spider web' myth and proving that Israel is unpredictable."
MK Silvan Shalom (Likud) asked the officers what stands behind the recent declarations of the Syrian president. The officers responded that President Assad holds personal esteem for Hasssan Nasrallah and that there is a clear distinction between his leadership and his father's leadership (who, for instance, wouldn't have sent Syrian weapons during wartime). According to one officer, "Assad is very affected by the way the IDF withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 and by the latest revolution as well as the fact that the IDF didn't respond when he provided weapons during the war."
Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tzachi Hanegbi said at the beginning of the meeting at which the chief of staff was present, "I express doubt regarding the personal attack, which is in my eyes despicable, on the chief of staff in the past day." Hanegbi added, "I am confident my words reflect the sentiment of the committee members. The feeling is that a culture of judgment that is characteristic of the guillotine operators in the French Revolution, and not our own culture has developed."
The chief of staff has never been particularly admired by the members of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. The committee members testify that the chief of staff looked "very into himself, as if his world had come tumbling down. The proud, everything-is-possible, confident Halutz nearly disappeared."
Already at the beginning of the meeting, criticisms flew. One of the committee members said upon leaving the meeting: "Perhaps it was too early for us to meet. The military doesn't exactly know what's going on. They have no idea of the ceasefire will hold and what today will bring."
Major General Dan Halutz referred Tuesday afternoon for the first time to publications that he sold his stock portfolio the day the soldiers were kidnapped on the northern border and war broke out in the north. "This is a wicked and misrepresented publication. I don't know who is behind it and I don't intend to get dragged into an issue that taints my integrity," the chief of staff said.
Wednesday Northern Command Chief Udi Adam gave a piercing criticism of how the war was managed in a conversation with Ynet. "Where did we go wrong? In our understanding we needed to conduct an extensive ground operation, and as a result there were delays in preparing the forces. I don’t know if the ground offensive began too late – but it was late,” he said. In addition, the major general said that to his understanding, "The political establishment didn't make decisions quickly enough."
According to Adam, "The ground forces should have entered earlier and should have been called up earlier. The forces should have been better prepared – in this respect we were mistaken. I don’t know if this would have decreased our fatality rate, because such operations have a price, but in my opinion the war would not have lasted as long.”
The major general alluded that the criticism leveled by reserve soldiers, especially in regards to the disorganization and logistical confusion of the war, are partially justified, at least in some of the instances.
