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Last update - 11:07 31/01/2008 The IDF / Attacking the army on every front By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff Tags: Amnon Lipkin-Shahak  rain from reaching personal conclusions or recommendations against the war's leaders. David and Benkel sought to protect the senior officers, wherein they also saved the politicians. The commission kept its word. It withholds all personal criticism. As an indirect result of this, most of the final report's weight, perhaps more than is justified, is placed on the army's failed functioning during the war. The political echelon benefits from the doubt. The war, which the commission, pace Ehud Olmert's efforts, refuses to designate a success, was a fatal combination between a failed decision-making system at the top and catastrophic functioning of IDF ground units. If the interim report focused on slinging personal criticism at the leading triumvirate (Olmert, wartime defense minister Amir Peretz and then-IDF chief of staff Dan Halutz), this time the critique remains at the "systemic" level. And herein lies a yawning difference: the IDF, for which the report reserves even harsher language than the General Staff's pessimistic assessments earlier this week, took a beating from Winograd and is expected to take the criticism seriously. Advertisement The politicians, it may safely be presumed, will rush to file the report in the nearest drawer. This is no false slander. That is precisely what happened to the interim report's "systemic" recommendations regarding the political echelon. Ask Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who headed the committee Olmert speedily appointed to implement the interim report. Shahak recommended; nothing happened. Before the press conference, there was concern in Olmert's office that Winograd would talk a hard line after taking a delicate one in writing. In practice the opposite occurred. The judge found major failings, but such as these appeared in the interim report as well. His verbal phrasing was pretty milquetoast and hardly mentioned the prime minister. The report attacks the army on almost every front. Only the air force comes out with just a scratch, even a pat on the back. The General Staff, Northern Command, Navy, three of four division commanders who fought (the most defamed of all, Gal Hirsh, winds up getting some praise) - come under heavy fire. It is hard to understand, based on the commission's words, why the previous navy chief was not removed and why two of the division commanders got senior posts. But the army, in most cases, is presented almost as a single entity. Who, for example, is responsible for the dithering of the ground offensive for four weeks, the General Staff or Northern Command? For the IDF this is a critical question. The commission does not tarry to determine, aside from an unsubtle hint that Halutz could have ousted Major General Adam in mid-campaign. Large chunks of the report look like an inventory of IDF sins, which does not differ much from reporters' findings regarding the war. Winograd makes one important observation about the future, in warning against the IDF's tendency to make radical changes that largely spell a return to old principles, without adapting them to the anticipated threats. But the commission does not clarify how this warning accords with its (justified) criticism of the army's breakdown in values. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Jet error Israeli warplanes come close to shooting down Tony Blair's plane. Rehab (live) Report: Singer Amy Winehouse is to undergo drug rehab in Israel.   1.   "Even a pat on the back" 02:55  |  Esther 01/02/08   2.   Lebanon needs to evict Hezballah 16:24  |  DR 01/02/08   3.   To DR #2 13:01  |  Alex 02/02/08   4.   To Alex 18:50  |  Ezee 02/02/08   5.   Talk and more talk avails to nothing 06:30  |  The Archives 03/02/08   6.   ATTAKING THE ARMY..... 17:53  |  LJF-CANADA 24/05/08

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