Last update - 00:00 14/09/2006
Analysis: Generals' War II
By Ze'ev Schiff
The resignation of GOC Northern Command Udi Adam suggests that the top ranks of the IDF are falling apart. This is not a resignation intended to be an admission for failure during the war. In stepping down, Adam does not suggest he is accepting responsibility. He's quitting because he was insulted, and is protesting efforts being made to pin on him responsibility that isn't his.
The implication is that even before the Winograd Committee has held its first meeting to investigate the Lebanon War, the generals' war has began.
It had been expected for some time that Major General Adam would select his own way to respond to the events that were linked to him during the war. At first he chose silence. The IDF Spokeswoman filtered his meetings with the press, and Adam kept his views about the war to himself. He also avoided a meeting Chief of Staff Dan Halutz held with reservist generals.
Adam's resignation has immediate implications. It's impossible to resign from such an important position, and continue to command tens of thousands of soldiers until a replacement can be found. He is not taking a short leave of absence. Adam must leave immediately, and avoid buddy-buddy meetings with Defense Minister Amir Peretz. Adam has impressive achievements in his military career, but he must go quickly.
His resignation will not send him underground. On the contrary. He can now say what he thinks and present his position. He can show what he had asked for during the war, what was turned down and by whom.
Adam is supposed to be one of the most important witnesses for the Winograd Committee. This will be a generals' war. A great many of his arrows will be surely aimed at Halutz. Even if there is no real similarity between the war against Hezbollah and the Yom Kippur War, the latter is famous for its generals' war, which echoed all the way to the Agranat Committee that investigated the war. The generals' war of 1973 has still not ended, and 30 years on it has reemerged in books, in the press and among the scions of the generals.
The action around Adam began during the war, when claims were made at the General Staff that he was having trouble bringing his division commanders under control. At some some point Halutz came up with the idea of appointing a senior general to assist Adam. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert opposed Halutz's initial inclination to appoint the former GOC Northern Command, Benny Gantz, to the role. Olmert said that Adam might quit. Instead, Deputy Chief of Staff Moshe Kaplinsky was sent up north.