Retired General Yitzhak Brick has sharply criticized the Israeli army leadership, which he said did not equip the army with weapons, plans, and technology appropriate for future wars that have come to rely on drones and missiles, unlike conventional wars.
The general, who is nicknamed the “Israeli prophet of wrath” because he predicted an attack by thousands of Palestinian militants on the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip, as happened in the Al-Aqsa Intifada, said that “the chiefs of staff did not update Israel’s security concept to suit the current and future war, while there were no discussions about a strategic security vision for the coming years, and they completely ignored the existential threat that developed before their eyes over the past twenty years, and they did not care to prepare the home front for war, and they completely neglected to prepare the army and the home front to deal with shells, missiles and drones.”
Dealing with drones and missiles
Brick said that the leadership of the occupation army “did not respond, out of arrogance, to the radical changes in the armament of the enemy’s armies, which were preparing for wars that had changed radically, while the generals refrained from changing their perceptions and equipping themselves with the means for future wars.”
“For about 20 years, the chiefs of staff of the Israeli army (with the exception of Gabi Ashkenazi) lived on a vision that led to the disintegration of the Israeli army, when they decided that the major wars were over, that we had peace with Egypt and Jordan, and therefore we could make do with a small, technological, smart army with offensive capabilities,” he added.
He pointed out that “during those years, thousands of tanks were cut from the army, about half of the artillery battalions, many infantry units, engineering battalions, and 6 divisions of the ground forces were cut, which we lack today.”
He pointed out that “since 2002, the ground forces have been reduced by 66%, that is, to a third of their size.”
Brick said that these cuts in the occupation army, which were based on “deterring enemies,” coincided with the ability of the anti-Israel front led by Iran to develop various weapons, most notably drones and long-range missiles.
He believed that the army “did not build a defensive and offensive concept against the thousands of missiles and drones that will be launched daily at population centers and national infrastructure, such as power stations, water, gas and fuel reserves, transportation and industrial infrastructure, IDF camps and other strategic targets, and these failures are liable to destroy our country.”
Focus on air power
The retired general blamed the IDF leadership, which he said, due to its failure to understand the new reality, had not purchased new weapons suitable for multi-front warfare and had not established a ground-to-ground missile force whose primary purpose was to destroy rocket launchers. He said this system was hundreds of times more effective than aircraft that could not handle such launches.
He believed that cooperation with the United States was supposed to be established to create a powerful laser that could intercept ballistic missiles, a system that, in his opinion, would be hundreds of times cheaper than the missiles that Israel possesses, such as the Arrow, David’s Sling, and Iron Dome, all of which are so expensive that their stocks are limited and would run out within days in any multi-front war that Israel faces.
He also pointed to “the failure to acquire any radar-guided, multi-barrel anti-aircraft launchers capable of firing 6,000 rounds per minute, effective against drones, and the failure to acquire tens of thousands of drones for intelligence and attack.”
The Israeli general went on to dissect the reasons for the crisis facing the occupation army, in light of its focus on purchasing expensive fighter jets, noting that “recently, the Israeli army invested $32 billion in American aid over the next 20 years to acquire several squadrons of F-35 aircraft that will arrive within 5 years to a decade, and their importance will decrease significantly. This is instead of the weapons I mentioned earlier, whose importance and effectiveness in the upcoming multi-front regional war – which will reach us sooner or later – are dozens of times greater than these aircraft.”
Air Force Lobby
Breik claimed that the failure on October 7 was due to a lack of weapons needed to counter the attack, blaming what he called the “powerful air force lobby” that controlled decisions at the military and political levels.
As a result, he said, “Israel does not want to abandon the perception that the air force is the ‘king of the battle,’ even though the world has long understood that wars cannot be won with aircraft alone (in the Russian-Ukrainian war, aircraft are rarely seen), and over time, the contribution of aircraft to winning wars declines at an accelerating rate until they disappear completely in the following decades.”
“A group of paratroopers took over the army, and for many years the chiefs of staff were appointed according to the method of friend brings friend without any criteria. The same chiefs of staff also appoint generals without any criteria, so you will find that in all the senior positions from which one is promoted to the chief of staff, they are those with red berets (paratroopers).”
“The chiefs of staff, most of whom are paratroopers, are going hand in hand with the air force lobby, and are allowing the purchase of ‘crazy’ planes at the expense of everything else for the IDF. It is so crazy that even today during the war, the ground army’s need for at least four more divisions is being ignored, along with the creation of a missile force,” he continued.
Privatization of logistics supplies
The general, who served as a commander in the Israeli Armored Corps, pointed to the negative impact of privatizing the logistics and maintenance systems of the ground forces’ vehicles in favor of civilian companies, which he said “stamped the fate of the army and the state for the worse in the coming multi-front regional war.”
He said the allocation would weaken the military, because civilians would not be able to provide the necessary supply of fuel, water, food, ammunition, equipment and spare parts, or provide maintenance for tanks, armored personnel carriers and other weapons behind the lines when the war moves into enemy territory.
He also pointed out the prevalence of the wrong organizational culture of the Israeli army, such as: lack of discipline, failure to verify orders, failure to monitor decisions, and failure to learn lessons.
He also spoke about the prevalence of a number of diseases and negatives in the army leadership, such as “the lack of credibility of the Israeli army’s investigations, the prevalence of a culture of lies, the absence of performance standards in many units, and the lack of control over the army’s management, which results in the waste of millions of shekels.”
Netanyahu, Galant and Halevy’s responsibility
Brick, who has been known since October 7 for his harsh criticism of the army and Netanyahu’s government, blamed the Chief of Staff of the Occupation Army, Herzi Halevi, who he said “continues to ignore the lessons of the war, and continues to manage it even though we paid in it thousands of dead, tens of thousands of wounded, hundreds of kidnapped, and more than 100,000 displaced, while settlements were destroyed and 200,000 dunams of agricultural fields and forests were burned in the north and south.”
He then moved on to attack Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, because of his adherence to the Philadelphi Corridor, which is of no importance to Israeli national security, but may lead to the end of the peace process with Egypt.
While he warned that “the Egyptian army is the largest and most powerful in the Middle East, and may fight in a multi-front regional war against Israel,” he considered that “Netanyahu is playing Russian roulette and betting on the existence of the State of Israel as a man who lost his rule long ago and acts only for personal motives.”
He concluded by saying, “As long as Herzi Halevi, Yoav Galant (Israeli Defense Minister) and Netanyahu (…) continue in their roles, there is no hope for the Israeli people. Only their immediate replacement can save the country from its predicament, which is getting stronger day by day.”