Who will rebuild the IDF? - Haaretz

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Mon., February 04, 2008 Shvat 28, 5768

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Who will rebuild the IDF?

By Haaretz Editorial

Tags: Israel, Gabi Ashkenazi, IDF

The Winograd Committee's report correctly diagnosed a wide array of flaws and breakdowns, some structural and some circumstantial, in the military force that was at the state's disposal in the summer of 2006. These observations may not have been new, and mostly repeated what the Israel Defense Forces itself, or its external critics, found 18 months ago, but the report's importance lies in the binding force of its rulings and in its public consequence - the recognition that fixing what went wrong is vital and cries out for immediate action.

This is not necessarily to say that the report's recommendations, as opposed to the factual diagnoses, deserve to be applauded and adopted, all of them and in full. The Winograd Committee included experts and non-experts, albeit ones with professional and life experience. Five other members, with similar backgrounds, could have signed off on identical findings and still drawn different conclusions. We must not fall into the trap of nostalgia for a past that was no less problematic than the present. For which IDF are Israelis supposed to yearn - the one of pointless fatalities in the Mitla Pass battle? Of the INS Eilat? Of the Chinese Farm? Of the hundreds of dead on the wanton road to Beirut? Of the helicopter disaster?

Responsibility for a rehabilitated IDF will lie with the government, and particularly its heads and defense ministers, and with the chiefs of staff and military top brass. From these, not from the Winograd panel disbanded upon the completion of its duties, will an accounting be demanded, and let us hope this demand will not come from the next commission of inquiry.

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The supreme obligation devolves upon the statesmen - the ministers, the Knesset that approves their policy and ultimately the voters. They have the power to set national security policy, to determine the state's objectives in matters of peace and territories, nuclear proliferation and foreign relations, and to rule on controversial issues, such as compulsory military service and defense spending's share of the budget. Anyone who compels the IDF to police the Palestinian populace and permits tens of thousands to evade the draft weakens Israel.

With these starting points, the IDF and the other security and intelligence agencies are expected to generate the best military power - big and flexible enough to provide a solution to a broad spectrum of threats and scenarios, from Iranian nukes to Syria's missiles and armored corps, and including suicide bombings and short-range rockets, but not too heavy for Israel's society and economy to bear endlessly.

In order to rehabilitate the IDF, Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi must put together the most professional and ethically minded team. A review of the current crop of commanders' findings prompts concerns that not all of the best, most experienced and talented people are on it.

Ashkenazi needs by his side generals who were discharged from the service before their time in recent years and commanders whom the IDF was quick to forgo, to their and its detriment, particularly the wartime commander of Division 91, Brigadier General Gal Hirsch. To rebuild the army and prepare it for future tests, the chief of staff - with encouragement from the defense minister, the government and the Israel's entire society - must learn to unload old baggage.

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1.	War against terrorists.	17:58	\|	Harold Lane	03/02/08

2.	Effie Eitam can Rebuild the IDF as he built Givati	18:03	\|	Shlomo	03/02/08

3.	IDF will not be rebuilt as long as a TA sq. is named for loser Ra	18:39	\|	Absolute Sweden	03/02/08

4.	according to israelis, their borders h. been	20:27	\|	bozhidar balkas	03/02/08

5.	War Against Terror and War Against Armies	20:28	\|	Joseph	03/02/08

6.	5. dear joseph. if we would start reasoning	21:30	\|	bozhidar balkas	03/02/08

7.	lets ask nasrallah	05:12	\|	knowledge	04/02/08

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