Netanyahu: Comptroller report doesn't include 'truly important lessons'
Prime minister dismisses criticism in upcoming Protective Edge report, saying Israel is already implementing lessons learned from the 2014 war in Gaza: 'We implement these lessons without making any announcements: comprehensively, diligently and quietly.'
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed again on Monday criticism against him expected to appear in the State Comptroller report on Operation Protective Edge, claiming that "the truly important lessons" do not appear in the report.
"We implement these lessons without making any announcements or statements to the media. We implement them comprehensively, diligently and quietly," he added, speaking at the beginning of the Likud party meeting.
Addressing claims made by some of the ministers that the IDF achieved no decisive victory against Hamas in Gaza, Netanyahu insisted that "We've delivered Hamas the hardest blow it has ever suffered, killing about a thousand of its terrorists, including its most senior commanders. We knocked down the terror towers. We acted with force and responsibility and in full coordination between the political and military ranks."
In that vein, he rejected allegations that he and then-defense minister Moshe Ya'alon failed to properly update the cabinet about the situation on the ground before, during and after the war.
"No cabinet in the history of the state has been more updated, and when you enter a cabinet meeting you must leave your cellphone, small politics and personal interests outside," the prime minister claimed.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman used his own Yisrael Beytenu party meeting to lambast politicians who he said were more interested in settling scores and laying blame on others than learning the necessary lessons from the war.
"The ongoing conversation right now about the report is not one that deals with the matter at hand, but rather a political one that does not contribute to Israel's security. On the contrary, it just hurts Israel's security," Lieberman said.
He stressed his criticism was not towards the Defense Ministry, which he is currently heading, or the IDF. "The IDF and the defense establishment have been busy learning and implementing lessons from the very first day after Operation Protective Edge. I think today all of our systems are ready—both the regular army and the reserves—in a way we haven't seen in decades," Lieberman asserted.
"The comptroller report is supposed to be used to learn lessons and introduce improvements, not as a platform to settle scores. We need to be wiser and move from political arguments and accusations to a discussion on the matter at hand: what we need to improve and where," the defense minister added.
Meanwhile, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, who was the finance minister during the 2014 war in Gaza, called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to publicly admit the mistakes he made in the cabinet before and during the war.
"The prime minister needs to stand before the nation and the military and admit that the comptroller report proves beyond any doubt that he had erred," Lapid said at the beginning of his own party's meeting. "He needs to tell the citizens of Israel that the process of corrections and lesson-learning begins now."
The State Comptroller's report dealing with cabinet decision-making before and in the early stages of the operation, as well as with the threat of cross-border Hamas tunnels, will be released on Tuesday at 4pm.
Lapid’s report shows that even after the Shin Bet and the Military Intelligence told Netanyahu that the tunnels have become a strategic threat, "the prime minister did not hold the necessary discussions, did not raise the issue in the cabinet, did not give the military the correct orders. None of these matters were amended in the last two and a half years; Not the Cabinet’s operation, nor the decision-making process."
Nevertheless, MK Lapid emphasized, "I don’t think the prime minister should resign for being wrong. Mistakes happen. Wars do not occur in the laboratory and security concerns are a complex matter."
Ahead of the report’s publication, recriminations between members of the cabinet, politicians and military officials have been hurled around for some time. Some are opposed to the conclusions—which have yet to be officially released—while others throw responsibility around regarding the impaired preparation and the problematic handling of the tunnels' threat during the conflict with Hamas.
"What is worrisome is not the mistakes, but the denial," added Lapid. “The attempt to engage in image, politics and media spins at the expense of national security is alarming. This is a professional and thorough report, but it is also harsh, with personal notes for the prime minister, for the former defense minister, for senior IDF officials. The question is what are we going to do now: get into another ugly political fight, or are we going to fix things?"
According to Lapid, contrary to the political echelon, the IDF started its learning process and the amendment of faults immediately after Protective Edge Operation: "the IDF investigated its faults with honesty and courage, and started taking care of it. The political echelon, and especially the prime minister, did the exact opposite. The Comptroller’s report on this matter is conclusive."
In recent days, Moshe Ya'alon, who served as the defense minister during the operation and the then Chief of Staff Benny Gantz addressed the report as well.
Ya'alon wrote: "You will be hearing quite a bit about Protective Edge in the coming week. Those who practiced politics in the Cabinet during the war, in an unprecedented manner, will continue to do so this week. They will tell you they didn’t know, they weren’t told, that no one reported to them. And the biggest lie? That we were unprepared and that we lost. That’s nonsense."
Gantz said in a closed-doors event: "I do not accept what is written there."
