Halutz is the one
Current army chief best suited to lead Israel in war against Iran
The last war in Lebanon will remain controversial. Commentators and journalists alike will continue to argue about everything.
In the heat of the arguments, the protests and mutual cries, the simplest insight is likely to become lost: What happened in Lebanon did not change the arena of Israel's strategic hazards. Namely, the heavy existential threat posed by Iran and the possibility of war. Although such a clash with Iran is not necessarily imminent, it is not unreasonable as long as Teheran is led by its current regime.
'Better plasma screens'
If a war does indeed break out, an Israel-Iran war will take on a completely different character to the fighting between the IDF and Hizbullah. This war will be won by technology, and if we resort to the term used by Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, the winners will be those who employ the more sophisticated "plasma screens", and know how to use them better.
It won't be those who are better at storming another fortified bunker.
Israel is a small country with few resources and it cannot be fully prepared for every possible war scenario. The probability of an Iranian battalion of tanks racing towards Israel (via Iraq, Jordan and Palestine), or the possibility of Israel conquering parts of a Muslim country by conducting a massive ground assault, is not high.
This does not apply to the realistic option of long term missiles being fired towards Israel's largest population centers alongside ostentatious terror attacks. The response to such hazards is very different to those posed by Hizbullah provocations.
Therefore, the question of whether Chief of Staff Dan Halutz scored a 70 or 80 percent success in conducting the retaliation acts in southern Lebanon will only be of value to military historians and various investigative committees.
More important question
Another question is more important for Israel's future: Namely, who will be the right person to fill the post of chief of staff in the next war? Who has the right qualities necessary to lead a possible military campaign against Ahmadinejad's Iran, a war likely to be won by the "high technology units" – the Air Force, Navy and the intelligence forces?
The obvious answer is Lieutenant General Dan Halutz. Dan Halutz has the complete understanding, the skills and capabilities for the job – despite his natural arrogance and his foolish involvement in the stocks affair.
Israel must not let itself become blinded by drawing endless lessons from the IDF's severe shortcomings in the brief operations it carried out in southern Lebanon, as is being called for by some embittered former generals.
Firstly, because Hizbullah was defeated and was not far from total destruction. Secondly, and this is what's most important, in a confrontation with Iran everything will be different: The force of the clash, the battlefield, the damage to the home front, the munitions, the way the war will be won.
Hiring the high-tech sector
In face of the Iranian projections, the IDF should make way for the bright minds of Israel's scientific, technology and management sectors, offer them employment in the Defense Ministry and remunerate them handsomely.
True, they'll sit in air-conditioned rooms packed with computers; they'll stare at "plasma screens" and will be paid tens of thousands of shekels every month. Their contribution to Israel's defense, however, will be priceless, because our future as a state hinges on the extent of their genius.
Enough of preparing for the next war. We must prepare for the one that may be lying ahead. Lieutenant General Halutz is fashioned from those elements crucial for a commander tasked with preparing the military for such war, and if there is no other choice leading it in such war, until victory is achieved. Yet only if there is no other choice but such war.
