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| By: Israel Insider staff and partners |
| Published: August 22, 2006 |
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Israel's liberal and intellectual Haaretz, in a strong editorial, calls for the resignation of Chief of Staff Dan Halutz:
"The chief of staff is responsible for the public's lack of confidence in the Israel Defense Forces' ability to win, and he will be responsible for reservists who fail to show up in the future. He is responsible even if other people, both above and below him, are also responsible. The politicians will be judged in the Knesset and in the next elections, and perhaps also by a commission of inquiry, and the day is presumably not far off when Kadima will fade away as if it had activated a self-destruct mechanism on July 12. But all the things that may yet happen must begin with the resignation of the chief of staff, so that it will be clear that change is imminent.
"The chief of staff is responsible, according to the definition of his job, for all the failures that emerged in the IDF's operational deployment, training and equipment. Targeted assassinations of Hezbollah's leadership now will not change this impression, and it seems that that idea is meant to serve the army's and the government's public relations. The gap between the exhibitionist appearances of the IDF spokeswoman in the early days of the war, accompanied by senior officers who preached to the enemy in front of the cameras instead of fighting him successfully, and the flight of spokespeople from the screen as the rain of missiles on Israel intensified, teaches that failure is an orphan, and those responsible are now entrenching themselves in a sense of injury -- as if the very demand that they take responsibility were an effrontery. Taking responsibility, it seems, requires no less courage than fighting a war."
"Israel's culture of government does not encourage resignations or ousters after failures. And the results are clearly visible. The prime minister is already promising to set up a mechanism for learning lessons; the defense minister is appointing an inquiry committee devoid of any authority; and the government is establishing a committee to deal with the home front. Those who should be investigated are dressing up as investigators. Between this and what ought to be happening lies a yawning abyss."
Read the full editorial in Haaretz |
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