The Senior Command Conference, which was held at the Israel Air Force base at Hatzor, near Be'er Sheva, was meant to present analyses of the IDF’s performance during the war as well as the lessons learned from it.
At the end of the day, active duty commanders substantiated in their presentations the claims by the returning rank-and-file of gross mismanagement of the war by top IDF brass.
Halutz did his best to put a good face on the dismal reports, although he had no choice but to admit to reporters at a news conference Tuesday evening that Israel had failed to achieve many of its objectives.
He praised the heroic evacuations of wounded soldiers by their comrades, and said the army had succeeded in causing significant damage to Hizbullah’s status, its infrastructure and its storerooms, as well as in eliminating “hundreds of terrorists.”
Nonetheless, Halutz was forced to acknowledge the failures, although he continued to defy calls by reserve officers, families of dead soldiers and political figures to resign.
“We were not successful in reducing the short-range rocket fire on Israel’s north before the ceasefire,” he said in his summary of the IDF probe into the war.
“There were cases in which officers did not carry out their assignments, and cases in which officers objected to their orders on moral grounds,” he said, noting that this “ran counter to the army’s basic values.”
Halutz also contradicted one of the main goals of the war, stated at the outset – the rescue of two IDF reservists, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were kidnapped by Hizbullah terrorists as part of an attack on Israel’s northern front. The embattled IDF Chief of General Staff stated in his summary that it would be a mistake to declare the rescue of the two reservists as a military goal.
The IDF Chief of Staff bluntly reiterated his refusal to resign his post, even in the face of numerous calls to do so by families of the soldiers killed in the war, politicians and active and reserve soldiers who had suffered through the mismanagement on the front lines.
He said resigning at this point would be tantamount to “running away” and that he had decided instead to remain and “correct what can be corrected.” Lt.-Gen. Halutz added that if the government-appointed Winograd Commission probing the war issues in its report a call for his resignation, he will comply. The report is expected to be published next month.
At the end of the day, active duty commanders substantiated in their presentations the claims by the returning rank-and-file of gross mismanagement of the war by top IDF brass.
Halutz did his best to put a good face on the dismal reports, although he had no choice but to admit to reporters at a news conference Tuesday evening that Israel had failed to achieve many of its objectives.
He praised the heroic evacuations of wounded soldiers by their comrades, and said the army had succeeded in causing significant damage to Hizbullah’s status, its infrastructure and its storerooms, as well as in eliminating “hundreds of terrorists.”
Nonetheless, Halutz was forced to acknowledge the failures, although he continued to defy calls by reserve officers, families of dead soldiers and political figures to resign.
“We were not successful in reducing the short-range rocket fire on Israel’s north before the ceasefire,” he said in his summary of the IDF probe into the war.
“There were cases in which officers did not carry out their assignments, and cases in which officers objected to their orders on moral grounds,” he said, noting that this “ran counter to the army’s basic values.”
Halutz also contradicted one of the main goals of the war, stated at the outset – the rescue of two IDF reservists, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were kidnapped by Hizbullah terrorists as part of an attack on Israel’s northern front. The embattled IDF Chief of General Staff stated in his summary that it would be a mistake to declare the rescue of the two reservists as a military goal.
The IDF Chief of Staff bluntly reiterated his refusal to resign his post, even in the face of numerous calls to do so by families of the soldiers killed in the war, politicians and active and reserve soldiers who had suffered through the mismanagement on the front lines.
He said resigning at this point would be tantamount to “running away” and that he had decided instead to remain and “correct what can be corrected.” Lt.-Gen. Halutz added that if the government-appointed Winograd Commission probing the war issues in its report a call for his resignation, he will comply. The report is expected to be published next month.