Last update - 00:00 15/09/2006
Protesters, mourning parents welcome Ya'alon's condemnation of war
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent
The leaders of movements protesting the way the government conducted the war in Lebanon and parents of children killed in the war welcomed former chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon's condemnation of the war.
The protest leaders saw Ya'alon's attacks as bolstering their campaigns, while the bereaved parents saw his comments as corroboration of their feeling that their sons may have died in vain.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Haaretz, Ya'alon decried the "corrupt" decision to launch the ground operation at the end of the war, in which 33 soldiers died. He said the war "had no substantive security-political goal, only a spin goal" and called for the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Chief of Staff Dan Halutz.
Click here for the full interview in Friday's Haaretz Magazine.
"We started the move, now it's going on without us," said Moshe Muskal, father of Staff Sergeant Rafanael Muskal, who was killed in Lebanon. Muskal heads the bereaved parents' protest.
He said Major General Udi Adam's resignation and Ya'alon's statements started the domino effect that would ultimately lead to the resignations of the prime minister and the defense minister. "It began with OC Central Command, the next day the OC Northern Command resigned. It's a matter of days until the chief of staff resigns; then the defense minister and finally the prime minister will announce his resignation," he said.
Attorney Eliad Shraga, leader of the protest movement calling for a state commission of inquiry, welcomed Ya'alon's criticism.
The leader of the reservists' protest, Roni Zwiegenboim, said "the leaders' decision making process, as reflected by the former chief of staff's statements, is shocking and horrifying. It corresponds with what we saw during the war."
Among other things, Ya'alon condemned the decision to launch the ground operation, in which 33 soldiers were killed, as no more than a "spin move."
The parents of the killed soldiers agree with Ya'alon.
"We didn't need him to know that," says Haim Zemach, father of Staff Sergeant Oz Zemach, who was killed when a missile hit his tank. "My son died a hero, but his death could have been avoided."
On Thursday the Zemach family and the families of three of Oz's friends drove to see the tank in which their children had been killed. Moshe Nissan, father of Yinon Nissan who was killed in the same tank, says "it appears they were killed for nothing. They [the leaders] wanted to display strength at the last moment, without thinking. I don't know if that was justified."
"Ya'alon is absolutely right," the mother of one of the killed soldiers said. "I speak as a mother. This is a damned war, it was a damned battle."
Yossi Shahar, father of Sergeant Or Shahar, was not shocked by Ya'alon's statements. "I don't know how I'd feel if Or had died in an inevitable war, but this was not the case; we feel he died for nothing in an unnecessary war."
Activists of the Movement for Quality Government said Thursday they were stopping their 19-day hunger strike. They said the reason was medical and because they needed their strength to continue the campaign.