Last update - 00:00 05/09/2006
Criticism muted at Halutz meeting with IDF officers
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent
Senior Israel Defense Forces officers, together with brigade and battalion commanders in regular service, took part on Monday in an 11-hour debriefing conference on the Lebanon war. The tone of the meeting was less critical than at other meetings of this type, especially those involving reserve units.
During the conference, chaired by Chief of Staff Dan Halutz at the IDF's command college in Glilot, near Tel Aviv, GOC Northern Command Udi Adam presented what others at the meeting termed a "defense brief" for the war's management.
The head of Military Intelligence, Major General Amos Yadlin, told those present that MI had not been surprised by what it found in Lebanon.
Despite complaints voiced by some commanders about the ground forces' level of training and preparedness, officers who took part in the meeting said later that those who spoke held back so as not to anger their superiors.
"Nobody dared go overboard, but many understand the depth of the crisis," said an officer. The officers added that people might have been concerned that they would not be promoted if they were too critical.
Some battalion commanders noted the gap between the sense of success that they said they experienced during the fighting and the media's presentation of events - which, they charged, focused only on complaints and failures. Their remarks were directed against the media as well as against the army's spokespeople.
Halutz is set to hold another meeting to discuss the war on Tuesday, to which he has invited a few dozen retired senior officers ranging in rank from chief of staff to brigadier general. Similar meetings on a smaller scale were held during the war, but an invitee to Tuesday's meeting told Haaretz: "It's a pity that they didn't take advantage of our experience in Lebanon during the war itself."
Also on Monday, Channel 2 television unveiled additional sections of a document written by reserve officers who served in the Northern Command during the war. The document complained of confusion in defining missions, faulty preparation of the troops and unattainable goals.
The officers also slammed a decision by commanders of the divisions that fought in Lebanon to direct the fighting from behind the lines instead of coming to the front to see the real situation.
Meanwhile, representatives of the IDF, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the Lebanese Army held another meeting Monday in Rosh Hanikra, on the Lebanese border, to discuss the IDF's withdrawal from Lebanon and UNIFIL's deployment. UNIFIL Commander Major General Alain Pellegrini said that all parties were "on the right track" to achieve the IDF's full withdrawal and the Lebanese Army's assumption of full responsibility for the area near the border with Israel.
On Saturday and Sunday, a contingent of 880 Italian soldiers landed in Lebanon to join UNIFIL. They will be joined by another 120 officers and troops on September 10. So far, some 3,100 members of the UN force, which is slated to number 15,000 soldiers, have deployed.