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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Analysis: Government and IDF wracked by unprecedented leadership crisis. |
| 2006-08-14 |
| In a state as vulnerable as Israel is, this kind of discord between civilians and military is a disaster. Relations between the country's political and military leadership are at the lowest point in the country's history, on the verge of a crisis. In addition, there is a growing lack of confidence between Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, the first CoS to hail from the air force, and many of his general staff colleagues from the ground forces, who say he and his "blue clique" [blue being the color of the air force uniform-ed] do not fully appreciate the nature of ground warfare. Here's an interesting aside about the planning by the IDF for the Lebanon operation. Senior IDF officers have been saying that the PM bears sole responsibility for the current unfavorable military situation, with Hezbollah still holding out after almost a month of fighting. According to these officers, Olmert was presented with an assiduously prepared and detailed operational plan for the defeat and destruction of Hezbollah within 10-14 days, which the IDF has been formulating for the past 2-3 years. This plan was supposed to have begun with a surprise air onslaught against the Hezbollah high command in Beirut, before they would have had time to relocate to their underground bunkers. This was to have been followed immediately by large scale airborne and seaborne landing operations, in order to get several divisions on the Litani River line, enabling them to outflank Hezbollah's "Maginot line" in southern Lebanon. This would have surprised Hezbollah, which would have had to come out of its fortifications and confront the IDF in the open, in order to avoid being isolated, hunted down and eventually starved into a humiliating submission. According to senior military sources, who have been extensively quoted in both the Hebrew media and online publications with close ties to the country's defense establishment, Olmert nixed the second half of the plan, and authorized only air strikes on southern Lebanon, not initially on Beirut. Although the Premier has yet to admit his decision, let alone provide a satisfactory explanation, it seems that he hoped futilely for a limited war. A prominent wheeler-dealer attorney-negotiator prior to entering politics, he may have thought that he could succeed by the military option of filing a lawsuit as a negotiating ploy, very useful when you represent the rich and powerful, as he always had. Another motive may have been his desire to limit the economic damage by projecting a limited rather than total war to the international financial powers that be. Read the whole thing, which is immensely depressing. This clown Olmert has tossed away strategic surprise for Israel, and the next time it's going to be much, much harder. |
| Posted by:Omavising Threater1218 |
| #8 It seems that Olmert didn't want a victory. Olmert loves defeat: so, Israelis, make him happy, defeat him in the next elections. |
| Posted by: leroidavid 2006-08-14 19:43 |
| #7 I hope to God so, Besoeker. The alternative is that they haven't any plan, and then we have to pray that Bibi gets elected really, really soon. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-08-14 19:36 |
| #6 I'm wondering if Olmert and the IDF strategy is to let the Hezbugs filter back in, let the kak begin again.... then hit them on the rebound. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-08-14 19:26 |
| #5 They needed and need a national coalition. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-08-14 19:21 |
| #4 I recognize that plan from someplace a few weeks back... All that aside, if we can come up with it here on the Burg, Israel has no excuses, but only blame to apportion. If Olmert were given this plan and an army ready to execute it, and he then turned it down for the piece-meal crap he put into operation, then Olmert deserves to be bundled up and dropped into the middle of Teheran. He deserves to stay with them more than with the nation he is supposed to, but faield to, defend well. |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2006-08-14 13:34 |
| #3 Don't see this as a crisis. Israelis know they've been hosed and will find good leadership. Their lives depend upon it. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-08-14 13:04 |
| #2 This is what would have played out if Igor had been Prez on 9/11. The Taliban and Al Qaeda would still be in power in Afghanistan and god only knows what more terrorist acts would have been directly carried out against Americans in their homeland while we all awaited the next non-event at the UN. |
| Posted by: Hupasing Crath3963 2006-08-14 13:02 |
| #1 Par for the course in much liberal civilian leadership. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-08-14 10:33 |