ISRAEL’S “UNITY” GOVERNMENT IN CHAOS OVER CALLS TO INVESTIGATE ISRAEL’S FAILURE ON OCTOBER 7
The War Cabinet put together by Bibi Netanyahu in the wake of the 7 October attack by Hamas is running into rough waters. The Cabinet met yesterday with the intention of discussing Defense Minister Gallant’s plan for governing Gaza once combat operations end. But that never happened. Instead, the meeting erupted in acrimony, pitting ultra-right politico Ben Gvir and Smotrich against leaders of opposition political parties — Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid — and the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army. Quite a spectacle.
According to Haaretz reporter, Michael Hauser Tov:
Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz faced personal affronts from Netanyahu’s Likud party and far-right Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after calling out the government ministers who clashed with Israeli military officials during Thursday’s cabinet debate about the launch of an investigation into October 7.
Gantz said on Friday that “what happened yesterday in the cabinet was a politically motivated attack in the middle of a war,” adding that “such conduct has never happened before.”
Gantz also said that the prime minister is responsible for the fact that the cabinet did not discuss what he called “strategic processes that will affect the continuation of the campaign and our security in the future”.
The rancor was sparked by news delivered by the Army Chief of Staff that a team of former military luminaries had been tasked to investigate the October 7 attack by Hamas and the failures to prevent it. That elicited this tirade from Ben Gvir:
“It is our duty to ask the army’s chief of staff questions and ensure that they do not repeat mistakes of the past, in which Benny Gantz was complicit.” . . . “The ‘day after’ the war must be discussed in the legal forum, and the decision cannot be left to Gantz, who wants to bring the regime of Mahmoud Abbas and his friends to Gaza.”
Yair Lapid, an opposition political leader, shot back at Ben Gvir saying:
“Ben-Gvir, a terrorism-supporter who didn’t serve in the army, attacks Shaul Mofaz, the IDF Chief of Staff during the 2014 Gaza War and an Israeli hero, and other ministers try to humiliate IDF commanders.”
Yep, things are going just swell with Israel’s War Cabinet. Looks like the same lack of professionalism demonstrated by the Israeli military in Gaza is spilling over into the political chambers.
All of this comes on the heels of another Haaretz report on the investigation into the murder of three Israeli hostages by the Israeli military.
That report is a stunner. Here are the lowlights:
The military investigation concludes that the soldiers and senior commanders operating in the area were not informed of a building found two days before the incident on which the words ‘Help, 3 hostages’ and ‘SOS’ were painted.
The soldier who shot the three Israeli hostages Samer al-Talalka, Yotam Haim and Alon Shamriz confirmed that he saw them carrying a white cloth, but did not have time to “make sense” of the situation.
Other soldiers opened fire at Haim and killed him, in violation of an explicit order which, they say, they “did not fully understand,” after their commander called on the hostage to emerge from the building he had run into.
At 9:49, two soldiers noticed Haim moving and opened fire, in spite of their commander’s order. The hostage was killed instantly. The investigation determined that the order to hold fire was heard clearly, but the soldiers claimed that they hadn’t understood the order, thinking it was a temporary order, meant to enable them to listen and ensure there was no enemy fire in the area.
It was further argued that soldiers were not sure about the rules of engagement, especially with regard to unarmed men, even though the IDF is operating in a densely populated area, calling on Hamas fighters to surrender.
Ponder that for a moment. Soldiers are given a “cease fire” order but only considered it a temporary suggestion. And they were not “sure” about the Rules of Engagement (ROE). The hostages were unarmed. They had their shirts off and it could be clearly seen they were not wearing a bomb belt. This incident confirms that Israeli soldiers have standing Rules of Engagement to shoot unarmed persons.
My former boss at State Department’s Counter Terrorism office, a retired Marine Colonel, drilled into me, “You train like you fight and you fight like you train.” The conduct of these Israeli soldiers speaks volumes about the poor, inadequate training provided by Israeli military instructors.
According to the Haaretz report, “the soldiers were cadets from a squad commanders’ course in the IDF’s Infantry School (Brigade 828), who were inducted into the army’s Golani brigade six months prior.” So much for the hype that the Golani brigade is some kind of elite unit. A malevolent clown show.
One of the things a new recruit into the U.S. military — it does not matter which service — is the importance of understanding and following lawful orders. When the Drill Instructor orders a young soldier or Marine to cease fire, that individual will quickly learn that means, “stop shooting.” Those who fail to follow orders are in for a good deal of suffering until they learn how to follow orders.
The old saying, “the fish rots from the head,” certainly appears to apply, not only to this particular unit of Israeli soldiers, but to the entirety of the Netanyahu government.