IDF officer: Consciousness is part of battle
Major-General Amir Eshel, commander of army's Planning Branch, addresses UN report into IDF operation in Gaza, tells Ynet 'commanders must make the right calculations and sometimes put limitations on power'
Talking to Ynet, Major-General Eshel said, "Our starting point is strong versus weak. This already puts us in quite a difficult position. This doesn't mean we have to give up, because it affects the State and the ability to act on the strategic level, and reaches all the way down.
"I'm not suggesting that anyone should die because of consciousness, but it's part of the battle. Commanders, on the ground too, must make the right calculation at every point in time, and sometimes put limitations on power. There is no recipe here, but there is no doubt that there are more parameters today in the system of considerations, some of which are not part of the military milieu."
According to the officer, the battlefield is very complex, and therefore the consciousness issue must be taken into account. "Everything is photographed and documented. There is no doubt we must examine the nature of the activity in the general context – is what I gain here worth it compared to what I lose? We must constantly ask what will happen is we do this on the operational level, what we might gain on the level of consciousness."
Major-General Eshel rejects many claims made by the Goldstone Report, but says Israel should not take the accumulated effect of the criticism lightly. According to him, there are things which can be done, on the operational level as well.
"Sometimes it's more complicated than fighting," he says. "The issue of legitimacy for Israel is very significant, because we are not living in a vacuum. It's part of the battle. There is no doubt that the State of Israel has a problem, and the Goldstone Report has reflected it more strongly. There is a problem after Cast Lead."
'Enemy not standing in place'
Although the IDF does not see a real war in the horizon, an intelligence and strategic analysis presents quite a difficult current state of affairs.
"The enemy is not standing in its place. The military threat on the State of Israel is significantly higher," says Major-General Eshel, who explains he is talking about high-trajectory weapon and says the enemy is attempting to increase the range and accuracy.
"The entire Middle East is swamped, from Gaza to Iran. They all know that the State of Israel's great advantage is the aerial crushing power and are trying to compensate for this advantage. They are purchasing new systems at volumes which we have not seen for many years."
But these are not all the threats Israel is facing. According to Eshel, "There are trends of disrupting abilities through sophisticated measures, electronic warfare and issues of developing terror abilities. There is also a great strengthening of countries connected to the West, following the understanding that moderate countries, which constitute a counterbalance against the radical axis, must be bolstered.
"On the other hand, in 1979 our friend in the Middle East turned into the little devil. I am not saying such a thing will happen tomorrow in one country or another, but when looking at building strength, we must look years forward."
He believes the IDF can deal with a war on several fronts, but the picture at the end will not be an enemy with a white flag. "This concept is unsuitable. We thought that if this didn't happen at the end of the Second Lebanon War, we lost. That's not true.
"It's true that there was a missed opportunity, but we rushed to mourn. In practice, we created an unusual deterrence, which could blow up tomorrow, but in the meantime has withstood the test.
"In the future we have the power, and by correctly using fire and maneuvering, we'll be able to bring these organizations and countries to a place where they'll understand they shouldn't. They will be the ones to fire the last rocket. But we will claim such heavy prices from them that we will be distancing wars and conflicts as far as possible. We won't set it to zero completely. The Six Day War did not prevent the War of Attrition."
He stresses that there is no "hocus pocus" and that only a correct mix of abilities will serve the purpose. "There have been quite a few big arguments about active defense, whether thousands of missiles can be stopped, but that's not the only thing."
Military passiveness
According to Eshel, the IDF's approach is passive in the sense of initiating action against the enemy in order to disrupt its abilities. He implies that an operation against Hezbollah is not on the agenda at the moment.
"It's a basic question. We analyze the entire strategic situation, and we have things which bother us more than Hezbollah," he says.
Iran, for instance?
"Iran is a complicated challenge. The IDF is looking from close to far and finding itself in a position of a dancer doing a split. This split is expanding and includes all the challenges. We believe Iran is a global problem, and therefore there are those who must deal with the issue. Perhaps there is no point in a dialogue.
"We have known them for years. The Iranians are deep in the culture in the religious component, great experts in hiding and deceiving, and the world is aware of this. But we as an army must not say anything beyond this."
As for building strength, Major-General Eshel says the army is not engaged in moving in the future from the position of "the people's army" to a professional army, although the number of new recruits may decrease significantly in the coming years, as a result of the growth in the number of Israelis exempted due to the "Torato Emunato" ("Torah is his profession") arrangement.
He says efforts are being made to increase the volume of populations which do not serve in the IDF and better utilize those in uniform, although eventually there will be a need to deal with the big issue.
"The State of Israel cannot avoid this question, but there is no magic solution here," he says.
