Gadi Taub | Tablet | March 8, 2024
In this in-depth special edition of Israel Update we bring you (with English subtitles) a conversation with General Itzhak Brik – the man who has been sounding the alarm about the lack of IDF preparedness for many years. The IDF brass routinely dismissed his warnings. But Israel has since learned the hard way that he was right. Brik walked us through the mistakes that brought about the decline of Israel’s military force under the false conception that big wars are a thing of the past and that a small technological army would do to keep Israel safe. We also asked him how ready Israel may be for a war with Hezbollah.
@inna1
Thank you for your personal report confirming Brik’s testimony about the preparedness of the Israeli army. It is very disturbing to hear, but it also speaks to the the level of dependency upon the US in which Israel finds itself today. It also explains why Biden believes he can coerce Israel into complying against its existential interests as has been done in the past. October 7, however, changed the calculus upon which Israel can easily be moved to support the follies of the old conception. As you say, the generals who have generated this chaos must go, but I would add that they should not be allowed to choose the next rotation of promotions from the ranks. Even more important than their going is the reality that their misjudgement and poorly inspired actions must not be allowed to infect the future leadership of the army which they have so badly led into the state of chaos on October 7.
A damning video. In 2015, after the Gaza War, I volunteered at a military base not far from Tel Aviv. I talked to soldiers and officers who participated in that war. What they told me was terrible. It was the same as what Gen. Brik is saying in the video – the army was falling apart. It was so many years ago. How could it happen that Bibi did not know that? Israel, without a strong army, cannot survive – it is suicidal. Also suicidal was the Unilateral Disengagement from Gaza in 2005. The generals who caused the Oct. 7 catastrophe must go. Israel can rely only on herself. We can only hope that Israelis will listen to such people as Pollard, Feiglin, Glick, Sherman, Belman, and others and decide who should be their new leaders. With G-d’s help, it will save Israel, Jews, and the world.
@Adam
My apologies. The link should work now.
This was a particularly damning report, and it explains, for example, why Israel needed the US to sell them M-16s when they should have had arms aplenty of their own in the warehouses which Brik referenced. This scandal is very similar to that which came in the aftermath of the Maidan Coup when Ukraine’s army of 60,000 could hardly field a force of 6,000. Despite the significant gains which have been made against Hamas, his commentary is very concerning.
For some reason, the link to Tablet doesn’t work. I repeatedly tried to access the article by pressing the link here, but nothing happend.Eventually I succeded in accessing the interview by going directly to Tablet via Youtube,
I listen to the interview in its entireity. A truly damning indictment of the incompetence and false conceptsiz of the militery top brass over a trenty year period. Brik, an insider who really knows what he was talking about,descibes how one chif of staff after another weakened the preparedness and effectiveness of the IDF in hundreds of ways. When the Hamas invasion came, the IDF didn’t have the weapons, the ammunition or the adequately trained soldiers to deal with the threat. He doesn’t believe that the IDF is anywhere near victory in Gaza, and is completely unprepared for a full-scale war with Hizbollah.