IDF brass prepares for severe criticism

The final Winograd Report is expected to contain very serious criticism of the Israel Defense Forces performance during the Second Lebanon War.

Members of the Winograd Committee said this week that the criticism would extend to many areas of the army's activities, and would present a very bleak picture of the IDF's ability during the war and the six years that preceded it.

Senior officers are concerned that the report will damage the IDF's image in the eyes of the public. The General Staff has conducted a number of consultations on this issue over the past few days and senior officers are expected to stress in public appearances over the next few days that many of the flaws identified by the report have already been fixed and the lessons learned.

Former chief of staff Dan Halutz is expected to bear the brunt of the criticism for his performance during the war. Some of the officers who served under him are also expected to face criticism.

Despite this, the final report will not contain sharp personal references to the performance of individual officers. This follows the committee's promise to the High Court to refrain from naming individuals after it refused to grant a hearing to people concerned that the committee's conclusions could harm their careers.

The report is expected to be especially critical of the IDF's failure to stop the incessant firing of short-range Katyushas on Israeli towns throughout the duration of the war.

Reservists neglected

It will also tackle the failed performance of civil and military authorities when tending to the civilian population who came under fire, and the neglect, in the years before the war, of the reservists' units and their training.

Hesitant and failed performances on the part of IDF commanders will also feature in the report, as well as criticism of the relationship between the Northern Command and the General Staff.

In its report on the quality of the fighting of the four divisions that took part in the war, the division commanded by Brigadier General Gal Hirsch, who later resigned, is said to have been the least bad of the four and that it stuck to its task and sought to advance.

The committee identified a large improvement in the division's performance after its initial failure - the kidnapping of the two reservists that sparked off the war.