Israel Pre-election Observation: Say No to the Generals - Civilians Superior on Critical Decisions

To be clear: our nation owes its great respect and appreciation to the the leadership of the IDF, past and present - including the generals heading Blue and White - for the many bold and heroic operations that they lead. Appreciate. Yes. Hand them the keys? Absolutely not!

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA..
07 April '19..
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=73491

There is nothing more frustrating for senior brass than to sit there and listen to some civilian challenge their recommendations - or even worse propose an alternative.

And it is understandable.

Behind the scenes the IDF is carrying out incredible operations that the brass is confident would humble the civilians to silence if only the shroud of secrecy could be lifted.

Unfortunately, the IDF brass fails to appreciate that the ability to successfully plan and execute special operations doesn't give them a monopoly on smarts when it comes to the bigger picture.

A reminder:

The greatest achievement of the Second Lebanon War - Operation Specific Gravity - was thanks to the insistence of civilian DM Amir Peretz who overruled all the brass who thought he was an idiot for ordering that the IAF destroy the Fajr Rockets threatening Tel Aviv before they could be repositioned by Hezbollah. The brass wanted to start by pounding Lebanese infrastructure.

Hear Peretz describe the decision in his own words: https://youtu.be/SM_LMb10qsQ

And it is worth listening to it as he describes the pressure he faced from the brass.

Just a few of the many other instances that the brass was incredibly wrong:

- Civilian Begin vs. the brass on developing and deploying Israeli spy satellites.
- Civilian Begin vs. the brass on the need to destroy (and the ability to destroy) the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981.
- Civilian Yuval Steinitz vs. the brass on the need to destroy the Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007.

And of course - we would not be on the Golan today if the civilian leadership had bowed to the continuous vocal lobbying by the brass for the
Jewish State to trade the Golan for gizmos and a piece of paper.

To be clear: our nation owes its great respect and appreciation to the the leadership of the IDF, past and present - including the generals heading Blue and White - for the many bold and heroic operations that they lead.

Appreciate.

Yes.

Hand them the keys?

Absolutely not!
________________________________________
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis: Since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on Arab-Israeli relations
Website: www.imra.org.il

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