Retired general: IDF needs rehab
Retired general: IDF needs rehabIn speech delivered at Thoughts after the War conference, former head of military intelligence criticizes army, political echelon
Merav CrystalIsrael should seek to deal with Iran and Syria , "Hizbullah 's parents," instead of chasing "the child who's throwing stones," a former Israel Defense Forces general said on Friday.
Speaking at a conference about the war in Lebanon entitled Thoughts after the War, former head of military intelligence Uri Sagi criticized the lack of a broader vision among Israeli leaders in handling the war and said that failures in the army's organizational and operational capacities need to be addressed urgently.
Sagi said the initial stages of the IDF offensive against Hizbullah were helpful but the ground offensive that ensued was not executed properly.
He particularly slammed the government's orders to the army to capture the territory south of the Litani River 48 hours ahead of the ceasefire as useless and costly in terms of the heavy casualties sustained by the forces.
He said more achievements were needed in order to knockout Hizbullah. While the air force did a great job in destroying long-range missiles and military targets, the ground offensive came too late.
Despite the deficiencies in the war however, he said that the war could open the door for talks with Syria.
He also linked the IDF's deficiencies to the fact that it for the last six years it has been "busy with other things," namely the fight against Palestinian terror groups in Gaza and the West Bank.
For all those people that have emailed me excited about the fact that former Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon is returning from Washington D.C. to hold talks with the Likud about his joining the party, please note the last sentence in the article.
For the last six years the IDF has been used to fight an internal security matter rather than train for what is the job of the IDF fighting external enemies. Second though it has gone on longer than the last six years it for sure didn't get solved during the last six years is the state of lack of training and equipment for the reserve element of the IDF.
In the IDF the reserves make up the majority of our fighting force and when they are allowed to rot from lack of training, this affects the security of the State of Israel.
Who was Chief of Staff of the IDF for most of these six years?
Moshe Ya'alon.
So how can we keep looking for an answer to the problem from the people who have caused the problem or have done nothing to solve it?
Is the Likud with Moshe Ya'alon as Defense Minister better than what we have now?
Yes.
Is it going to be the answer to the real problems of Israel lack of leadership?
No.
