The upper echelons of the Israel Defense Forces failed at every level during the recent war in Lebanon, Major-General (ret.) Amiram Levine said in a report presented to the general staff in November.

Levine, who was appointed by the IDF to examine the conduct of the northern command during the war, was highly critical in his report. He described serious flaws in the conduct of senior officers and said that Northern Command had failed in its mission of protecting the northern communities.

The meeting in which the report was presented was acrimonious and accompanied with heated exchanges between Levine and other senior officers. Levine said that one of the serious flaws in the conduct of the IDF during the war was its preference to the use of air power over ground forces.

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He also said that the call up of reservist units and their deployment was
delayed to the point where it gave Hezbollah an advantage in countering a
ground offensive.

In his assessment of GOC Northern Command at the time of the war, Major
General Udi Adam, who resigned two months ago, Levine said that he was
insufficiently assertive in conducting the fighting.

Levine described the way Northern Command managed the war as a collection of unrelated events, rather than a concentration of force, and he said this led to an uncoordinated military effort.

Regarding the role of deputy Chief of Staff, Moshe Kaplinsky, and the Chief of Operations at the General Staff, Gadi Eisenkot, now GOC Northern Command, Levine said that as ground forces commanders serving under a chief of staff with an air force pedigree, they should have played a more influential role.

He was also critical o the Ground Forces Command, headed by Major General
Benny Gantz, which Levine said had not prepared the forces adequately.

Levine concluded that the way the IDF was deployed during the war was flawed and that the aims of the war were not achieved. He said that the IDF did not adequately prepare for the possibility that thousands of missiles would be launched against Israel.