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Last update - 00:18 13/07/2009
IDF chief during Lebanon War says he'd do it again the same
By Haaretz Service
Tags: IDF, Israel news, Haaretz TV 

Three years after the Second Lebanon War, former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Dan Halutz said on Sunday he would have recommended the army embark on the same course of action were the conflict to erupt today.

"Even today, given the same figures, I would have recommended the same course of action," said Halutz, who led the army at the time of the war.

Both the army and the government came under severe criticism for their conduct during the war. Many have termed the conflict a missed opportunity as it failed to wipe out Hezbollah's rocket cache or see the return of IDF reservists, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose abduction by Hezbollah sparked the war.
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"The course of action that I recommended on July 12 was well-considered, not trellised on the day of the abduction," Halutz told a conference at the Tel Aviv University's Center for Strategic Research, to mark the anniversary of the war.

The idea was to attack Hezbollah until it realized "that the price it paid was higher than the potential for profit," Halutz added.

Defense establishment sources warned earlier Sunday that Hezbollah has been rearming itself and strengthening its military capabilities.

The Israel Defense Forces has been involved in special preparations in light of this threat, said the sources.

Kadima MK Shaul Mofaz, a former defense minister who sat in the government cabinet during the 2006 conflict, said on Sunday that Israel had achieved only limited success during the war.

Mofaz termed the war a missed opportunity for Israel, telling Israel Radio that Hezbollah now has more missiles than it did prior to the military operation. He also said that the Lebanon-based group had increased the range of its rockets.

A senior Israel Defense Forces official who took part in the war said recently that the army's failures in the war were due to its high expectations.

"We have learned a few things since," he said. "I hope that we are wiser, less arrogant, less drawn into making statements that we cannot back up. The sense of failure after the war did not stem so much from the IDF performance but from the gap between the results and the exaggerated expectations."

Major General (ret.) Moshe Kaplinsky, who served as the IDF's deputy chief of staff during the war, said that both the army and the government made numerous mistakes in their wartime conduct.

Kaplinsky, who spoke at Tel Aviv University's Center for Strategic Research, added that the IDF did not employ its preplanned reaction in case of soldier abduction and rocket fire. He added that the army also failed to utilize all of the units and tools at its disposal and was too slow at calling up reserves units.

Kaplisnky also blamed the government for not specifying its goals in the war, and said the cabinet and the army were not in complete tandem during the operation.

The state marked the official anniversary of the war last week, on the Hebrew calendar date.

Related articles:
  • 3 years on, Israel still divided over Second Lebanon War
  • Lebanon War anniversary / Families of the fallen see leaders without responsibility
  • 1982 memo shows Israel learned little from first Lebanon War
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      1.   It Could be So Simple 12:43  |  Walid 12/07/09
      2.   22 Nobel laureates 13:15  |  Andi 12/07/09
      3.   Not hard to understand why his plan 18:44  |  Mark Lincoln 12/07/09
      4.   Five or six years from now, we`ll be reading 19:13  |  Bitin Dawg 12/07/09
      5.   Walid, what land? What are you talking about? 19:33  |  Dan 12/07/09
      6.   ya do it agian... IDf was crying like little girls 20:30  |  sam i am 12/07/09
      7.   Smiling Halutz 20:56  |  Walid 12/07/09
      8.   Israel never learns 21:34  |  Palestinian 12/07/09
      9.   sam i am, we can turn Hezbanon into a pile of sand in 15 min 21:47  |  Dan 12/07/09
      10.   Genius Lincoln ,advise US Army in Iraq and Afghanistan ,not being 22:00  |  Absolute Sweden 12/07/09
      11.   That`s why he`s gone! 22:16  |  Butch 12/07/09
      12.   sam i am #6 00:23  |  MR 13/07/09
      13.   ha ha 00:51  |  John 13/07/09
      14.   Walid 1 01:27  |  Alice 13/07/09
      15.   Armchiar generals 01:29  |  sabra 13/07/09
      16.   SAm I Am 01:32  |  Sabra 13/07/09
      17.   You don`t see Hizbollah provoking Israel anymore, do you? 01:42  |  Conroy 13/07/09
      18.   Halutz The Businessman 01:45  |  Bob 13/07/09
      19.   Lebanon wants Peace 02:05  |  Shalom 13/07/09
      20.   What a stupid man 05:41  |  gus 13/07/09
      21.   # 14 gus 10:51  |  The Teacher/Instruct 13/07/09
      22.   To the Hague with him ! 20:46  |  Sean 13/07/09
      23.   #6, sam i am.... 18:15  |  Silvienne 14/07/09
      24.   #15, teacher/instruct (Kathy) 18:17  |  Silvienne 14/07/09
      25.   The world might not have patience for anothers israeli escapade. 19:47  |  jens 14/07/09
      26.   # 24 Silvi.. 00:51  |  The Teacher/Instruct 15/07/09
      27.   To #25 Jens 22:42  |  Avi 17/07/09
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