By Mara Vigevani
Israel’s preparedness for war is worse than at any time since the 1973 Yom Kippur war, IDF ombudsman Major-General (res.) Yitzhak Brik has warned.
In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and National Security Advisor Meir Ben Shabat, the contents of which were published Thursday by public broadcaster Kan, Brik criticised a committee appointed last week by IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot to examine the IDF’s level of preparedness for war in the wake of a previous report that Brik published in June.
Brik warned that as Eisenkot had already rejected his findings, the committee appointed by the chief of staff would suffer from a conflict of interest.
“The committee has no mandate to examine some of the issues, especially since two of the committee members have already expressed their firm support for the chief of staff’s position,” Brik wrote.
“It is better to carry out a test before the next war breaks out and not after it, when no one will have the ability to say ‘I did not know.’ The chief of staff’s statements about the IDF’s readiness do not stand up to the test of reality,” Brick wrote, adding that IDF’s preparedness for war, particularly that of the ground forces, has deteriorated to a point that he could not remember “from the day I was drafted.”
Brik was drafted in 1965 and served in the Armored Corps rising to the rank of Major General. He received the medal of valor for his role as commander of a reserve tank company in the Yom Kippur War.
Brick recommended that Netanyahu appoint an external commission headed by a retired Supreme Court justice and experts from various fields to investigate and formulate a work plan “that will fundamentally restore the organizational culture in the IDF.”