Reserve General Yitzhak Brick strongly attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy, against the backdrop of Israel’s threat to wage war on Lebanon following the recent escalation with Hezbollah.
The former general, who served as a brigade commander in the Armored Corps and was the commander of military academies, said – in an article in the Israeli newspaper Maariv – “They (the three officials) are causing the collapse of Israel.”
He described them as “living the illusions of three knights searching for adventure. They have nothing left to lose and are ready to gamble on the fate of the country. This is a group that decided to commit suicide and die with the Palestinians.”
He added that they are “completely closed off and do not listen to anyone, and are stuck in a bubble,” considering that the leaders of the Israeli army have lost confidence in the political leadership and the Chief of Staff and have called on him to resign.
He pointed out that there are no discussions about strategic national security in the government, nor any definitions by the army of current and future threats “for which we must prepare, according to which the size and training of the army must be determined, as well as the creation or acquisition of means of warfare and mobilization of manpower.”
Miserable failure
General Brik said that the three leaders had nothing to lose after their miserable failure in the October 7 attack, adding, “We cannot ignore their continued failures in achieving the goals of the war: the defeat of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the return of the kidnapped people to their homes, and their failure before the Hezbollah Party.” God bless the settlements in the north, and the massive fires that are devouring the forests and pastures there.”
The military commander also mocked the army’s threats to attack Lebanon, saying, “It failed with Hamas, so what does it want by attacking Hezbollah, which is hundreds of thousands stronger than Hamas? It will cause a regional war for which it is not prepared.”
He pointed out that even if there is “success” and ground forces push Hezbollah beyond the Litani River, “it will not be long before the IDF will have to evacuate its forces to Israel, because it does not have a surplus of forces that can replace those that are there.” in the occupied territories.”
He added, “An army attack against Hezbollah with its full force could bring terrible destruction to the entire country. On the other hand, Galant and Halevy are not ready to acknowledge the army’s weakness and inability, and prefer to bet on the fate of the Israeli army.”
A fatal decision
He added, “The state must say clearly and strongly that we need two years to rebuild the army, and after that we will be able, if necessary, to attack Hezbollah, so this madness must be stopped at all costs.”
The Israeli general pointed out, “Attacking Hezbollah by air and land would be a fatal decision for us and would cause a national catastrophe. The only possible way is to accept (US President) Joe Biden’s deal, which is likely to bring calm to the north, which will allow time to rearrange the army.”
He concluded by saying, “The reduction of 6 divisions in the past 20 years does not allow for the exchange of forces, and therefore the withdrawal of our forces to the Israeli border after a short period is inevitable. This is exactly what happens to us against Hamas.”
He added, “Once the defense forces withdraw to Israel, Hezbollah will return to the same places it was before our attack and everything will return to normal. Not only will our attack be useless, but it will lead to losses among our forces and may drag us into an all-out regional war, which is a completely different event.” The Israeli army has no response to it.”
Strong criticism
In turn, Reserve Colonel Hezi Nehema, who leads reserve officer courses in the Israeli army, strongly criticized the army leadership by highlighting its “failures” that prevent the achievement of the war’s goals.
Nehema said – in an interview with Yossi Yehoshua, army and security affairs correspondent for Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper – that “the directions in which the Israeli army is taking will not achieve victory.”
He added, “The IDF carries out attacks without maintaining continuity and focusing efforts, does not clear the space in which it operates, and quickly abandons its positions, allowing the enemy to rebuild its combat capabilities that will challenge the army in subsequent times.”
He also strongly criticized the occupation forces’ attack in Rafah, saying that the military operation there “suffers from many problems, and that the orders in the field are not clear even to the soldiers.”
He explained, “The fighting in Rafah, which is being marketed to the outside world as an exceptional success, reflects the division in the army in the best way. It took a long time until we received the order to attack. We started with one division instead of two divisions as we had planned. The field forces are complaining about the lack of means and ammunition.” And the lack of clarity in defining the goal and tasks.”
Nehema stressed, “There is no doubt that there is a disconnect and lack of trust between the field ranks and the General Staff level, and it is the IDF’s duty to respond to this.”
Change the equation
The senior Israeli officer explained his suffering with other reserve commanders “with the aim of thinking about how to change the equation according to which the Israeli army takes two steps forward and takes one step back.”
He said, “We presented matters 4 months ago to the commander of the ground arm and the chief of staff, but nothing has changed. We were scheduled to hold additional meetings in the last two months with the chief of staff, but they were rescheduled and postponed more than 3 times.”
He pointed out that among the other commanders who filed their complaints with the army were Lieutenant Colonel Oren Solomon from the Gaza Division, Colonel Ronan Cohen, a former intelligence officer in Central Command, Colonel Professor Gabi Siboney, a researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and the Mishgav Institute for National Security, and former commander of the Golani Patrol, Nati Birnbaum from Army Reserve Forum with over 100 battalion commanders.