Major General Itzhak Harel : "Israel army is hollow" [View All]

[tocqueville]

long article but worth the reading

excerpts :

"The IDF took efficiency measures in those years and endlessly discussed how to become more effective. But in the end you can buy a limited number of tanks and a limited amount of materiel.
When reservists discover in wartime that the shelf is empty because the equipment wasn't purchased, they rightly feel deep frustration. Saving is an important value, but in our neighborhood you have to be alert and as tightly coiled as a spring. Thus we found ourselves with an air force that was prepared and an eroded land army.


"We are being asked why we didn't warn of the dire situation. I am telling you that for six years the IDF presented the bad situation to the political echelon, the heads of the security establishment and the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee again and again. The Knesset members support us, the defense ministers are dealing with political difficulties, and prime ministers and finance ministers respond nonchalantly. I have a collection of articles about the waste in the IDF, and I am telling you it is lucky we have the United States.
We have to give thanks every day to our only friend in the free world for the support it has given us in this war."

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In order to ensure that a crushed Lebanon does not fall like ripe fruit into the hands of Iran, the senior officer proposes that tomorrow morning Israel call upon the free world to declare a Marshall Plan to rehabilitate Lebanon. "We have to be the generator, in order to ensure that Iran does not pour in money and take over the country. Had we acted in this way from the start, instead of showing up raring to fight, Rice would have come here with the idea of rehabilitating Lebanon and strengthening its moderate elements."

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"We must talk with the Syrians.
This is the United States' opportunity to bring about a turnaround in Iraq. Syria can become a positive axis, but in our neighborhood no leader takes a bold step before he is convinced of its success. Look at Sadat's visit to Jerusalem. It is a pity that in the territories we missed quite a few opportunities to build a coalitions with the pragmatic forces.
But the Palestinians have learned from the events in Lebanon that they don't interest anybody and that we are taking blows and not going anywhere. The time has come for us to look ahead and stop interfering with the middle generation in leading the Palestinian renewal."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/750499.html