The report criticized the governments since 1999 - a period that includes the leadership of Prime Ministers Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert - for ignoring the work and recommendations of the NSC.
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss wrote that there is a "built-in crippling" of the ability of the Council to influence governmental decisions. Often, the report stated, the failure to include the NSC in decisionmaking regarding issues of national security was "initiated and intentional."
However, Prime Minister Olmert announced that the offices of the NSC are moving this week from their current Ramat HaSharon location to Jerusalem, into the Prime Minister's Office. The prime minister said that the decision to move the NSC was intended to make the advisory body's work more effective. Official sources said that the plan to move the NSC to Jerusalem had been discussed earlier this year, but that the war in Lebanon drove home the urgency of the matter.
Both Giora Eiland and Uzi Dayan, former heads of the NSC, expressed the view that the move would remain cosmetic as long as the Council is not given expanded influence and effective legal powers.
The NSC was established by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in March of 1999 as an advisory body to the government, directly responsible to the prime minister. His successors, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, were both retired army generals and they tended to make security decisions in isolation or among close military associates.
Among several strategic decisions cited by Comptroller Lindenstrauss that former premiers Barak and Sharon made without consultation with the NSC in a systematic fashion were the unilateral withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 and the Gaza-Samaria unilateral withdrawal (the Disengagement Plan) of 2005.
Regarding Prime Minister Sharon's Disengagement Plan, for example, Lindenstrauss wrote:
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss wrote that there is a "built-in crippling" of the ability of the Council to influence governmental decisions. Often, the report stated, the failure to include the NSC in decisionmaking regarding issues of national security was "initiated and intentional."
However, Prime Minister Olmert announced that the offices of the NSC are moving this week from their current Ramat HaSharon location to Jerusalem, into the Prime Minister's Office. The prime minister said that the decision to move the NSC was intended to make the advisory body's work more effective. Official sources said that the plan to move the NSC to Jerusalem had been discussed earlier this year, but that the war in Lebanon drove home the urgency of the matter.
Both Giora Eiland and Uzi Dayan, former heads of the NSC, expressed the view that the move would remain cosmetic as long as the Council is not given expanded influence and effective legal powers.
The NSC was established by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in March of 1999 as an advisory body to the government, directly responsible to the prime minister. His successors, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, were both retired army generals and they tended to make security decisions in isolation or among close military associates.
Among several strategic decisions cited by Comptroller Lindenstrauss that former premiers Barak and Sharon made without consultation with the NSC in a systematic fashion were the unilateral withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 and the Gaza-Samaria unilateral withdrawal (the Disengagement Plan) of 2005.
Regarding Prime Minister Sharon's Disengagement Plan, for example, Lindenstrauss wrote:
The NSC, as the body meant to be the central staff in matters of national security, was not a partner to the process that preceded the prime minister's announcement of the Disengagement, including contacts made in this matter with foreign elements and the crystallization of the idea by the prime minister and his team of close advisors... It has been found that, ahead of the decision regarding the Disengagement by the prime minister, there had been no organized staff work to examine and discuss all of the possible alternatives and their repercussions.In May of this year, Ilan Mizrachi, the former deputy chief of Israel's overseas intelligence agency, the Mossad, replaced Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Giora Eiland as director of the NSC. Mizrachi, 59, served in the Mossad until 2003.