Gen. Yiftah Ron-Tal made headlines yesterday by saying that the preparations for the Disengagement came at the expense of combat training and helped lead to the IDF's recent failure in Lebanon. Ron-Tal also said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz should take responsibility for the unsuccessful war and resign.
Ron-Tal retired from active duty close to a year ago, after last serving as Commander of the IDF Ground Forces. He is now at the end of the traditional end-of-service vacation leave - but Halutz announced last night (Wednesday) that he was firing Ron-Tal immediately.
Halutz said that he attempted to reach Ron-Tal all day yesterday, but that Ron-Tal said he was busy with his studies. The IDF Chief then ordered Ron-Tal to appear for a clarification at 6 PM, but Ron-Tal again did not show up. Instead, Ron-Tal submitted a letter of resignation after 33 years of service. Halutz ignored the letter, and instead fired off a long letter of dismissal of his own, ending Ron-Tal's service immediately.
Halutz had harsh criticism of Ron-Tal, reminding him that an officer in uniform is forbidden to speak publicly about political matters, and certainly not to criticize the government publicly.
Ron-Tal met last week with Opposition Leader MK Binyamin Netanyahu, but said yesterday that he does not plan to enter the world of politics. Netanyahu staffers said the meeting with Ron-Tal dealt not with politics but with security matters.
MK Ariel's Criticism of Halutz
MK Uri Ariel (National Union) had harsh criticism of Lt.-Gen. Halutz for firing Maj.-Gen. Ron-Tal.
"In Halutz's eyes, a soldier who raped a girl is better than a soldier who objects to the expulsion of Jews from their homes," Ariel said, referring to the recent incident in which a group of Air Force soldiers were found to have serially-raped a 13-year-old girl, but were not dismissed. "Dan Halutz has not yet understood what everyone around him already senses - that very soon, he himself will leave the army in disgrace."
The Nahalal Forum - a group of secular right-wingers from kibbutzim and moshavim - announced its welcome to Gen. Ron-Tal "to the camp of rational Zionists who believe that this land is the land of the Jewish Nation and no other collective." The forum congratulated Ron-Tal for "revealing his ethical and Zionist opinion on the Disengagement, on what followed it, on the IDF's lack of preparedness for war, and on the criminal approach the government took towards its citizen pioneers in Gush Katif."
Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Tzvi Fogel feels that Ron-Tal did not proffer his criticism in the appropriate manner. Fogel feels that Ron-Tal should have resigned and not sufficed with merely expressing his verbal protest. "Ron-Tal himself was one of those who was responsible for the implementation of the Disengagement in the framework of his position as Ground Forces Commander," Fogel told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine, "up until six months ago. It's not serious or respectable to now claim that in the past six months the IDF's situation deteriorated."
"Ron-Tal should have admitted his own mistake, as part of the system, instead of spitting into the well of which he was part," Fogel said.
Fogel said that Israel's next war is at its doorstep, and that the army had better repair the deficiencies now: "We have been too involved in warfare against individual terrorists, and we've become experts in this - forgetting to prepare for things that began to appear as regular parts of our existence such as the Syrian and Hizbullah threats. We have to check and fix this, and there will be senior officers who will have to pay for this with their jobs."
Other senior army officials who have recently expressed themselves against the expulsion are recently-retired Maj.-Gen. Gerson HaCohen, who oversaw the army's role in the expulsion, and IDF Chief Rabbi Yisrael Weiss.
Ron-Tal retired from active duty close to a year ago, after last serving as Commander of the IDF Ground Forces. He is now at the end of the traditional end-of-service vacation leave - but Halutz announced last night (Wednesday) that he was firing Ron-Tal immediately.
Halutz said that he attempted to reach Ron-Tal all day yesterday, but that Ron-Tal said he was busy with his studies. The IDF Chief then ordered Ron-Tal to appear for a clarification at 6 PM, but Ron-Tal again did not show up. Instead, Ron-Tal submitted a letter of resignation after 33 years of service. Halutz ignored the letter, and instead fired off a long letter of dismissal of his own, ending Ron-Tal's service immediately.
Halutz had harsh criticism of Ron-Tal, reminding him that an officer in uniform is forbidden to speak publicly about political matters, and certainly not to criticize the government publicly.
Ron-Tal met last week with Opposition Leader MK Binyamin Netanyahu, but said yesterday that he does not plan to enter the world of politics. Netanyahu staffers said the meeting with Ron-Tal dealt not with politics but with security matters.
MK Ariel's Criticism of Halutz
MK Uri Ariel (National Union) had harsh criticism of Lt.-Gen. Halutz for firing Maj.-Gen. Ron-Tal.
"In Halutz's eyes, a soldier who raped a girl is better than a soldier who objects to the expulsion of Jews from their homes," Ariel said, referring to the recent incident in which a group of Air Force soldiers were found to have serially-raped a 13-year-old girl, but were not dismissed. "Dan Halutz has not yet understood what everyone around him already senses - that very soon, he himself will leave the army in disgrace."
The Nahalal Forum - a group of secular right-wingers from kibbutzim and moshavim - announced its welcome to Gen. Ron-Tal "to the camp of rational Zionists who believe that this land is the land of the Jewish Nation and no other collective." The forum congratulated Ron-Tal for "revealing his ethical and Zionist opinion on the Disengagement, on what followed it, on the IDF's lack of preparedness for war, and on the criminal approach the government took towards its citizen pioneers in Gush Katif."
Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Tzvi Fogel feels that Ron-Tal did not proffer his criticism in the appropriate manner. Fogel feels that Ron-Tal should have resigned and not sufficed with merely expressing his verbal protest. "Ron-Tal himself was one of those who was responsible for the implementation of the Disengagement in the framework of his position as Ground Forces Commander," Fogel told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine, "up until six months ago. It's not serious or respectable to now claim that in the past six months the IDF's situation deteriorated."
"Ron-Tal should have admitted his own mistake, as part of the system, instead of spitting into the well of which he was part," Fogel said.
Fogel said that Israel's next war is at its doorstep, and that the army had better repair the deficiencies now: "We have been too involved in warfare against individual terrorists, and we've become experts in this - forgetting to prepare for things that began to appear as regular parts of our existence such as the Syrian and Hizbullah threats. We have to check and fix this, and there will be senior officers who will have to pay for this with their jobs."
Other senior army officials who have recently expressed themselves against the expulsion are recently-retired Maj.-Gen. Gerson HaCohen, who oversaw the army's role in the expulsion, and IDF Chief Rabbi Yisrael Weiss.