BS"D
With Hawks Like This, Who Needs Leftists?
1 Adar, 5780 °° Feb. 26, '20
Opinion and Perspective,
The Israeli Army recently released a new Five-Year Plan for a major military upgrade, named "Momentum" (https://www.meforum.org/60436/the-idf-implements-mef-victory-concept
). Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, who approved the plan and
presented it to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, explained that the
plan "will allow the IDF to strike the enemy faster, more intensely,
with a stronger destructive capacity, thus overcoming the enemy and
bringing victory," adding that "The plan puts the principle of victory
back at the top of the list of priorities." It is designed to increase
offensive and defensive capabilities sevenfold.
The cost
is projected to be NIS 30 billion ($8.75 Billion) - annually - to
bolster Israeli military "air, ground, sea, and cyber capabilities, its
intelligence superiority, and technological prowess."
IDF
Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi presented the plan, stressing the
urgent nature of the threats Israel now faces, saying "they won't wait"
for Israel to resolve its electoral crisis. Israelis are expected to
vote at the beginning of March, for the third national election in a
year, although without much prospect of differing results (perhaps
illustrating Einstein's famous maxim, regarding repetition of the same
actions while expecting different results).
It was reported that
"Momentum focuses on strengthening the military's war readiness, placing
an emphasis on the operational edge of the IDF's elite point units in
all corps, upgrading the quantity and quality of the munitions used but
the Air Force, and transforming the army into a deadly and
multidimensional technological force across all spheres of battle,
including cyber and electronic warfare."
"Implementing this plan will make the IDF exponentially faster, more precise, and deadlier," Kochavi was quoted.
However,
the tough talk bubbling over this ambitious plan appears to contrast a
bit with another IDF milestone, of sorts. As Michael Peck reported
in The National Interest (January 28, 2020), in an article titled "The
Israeli Army Is Unprepared for a Ground War with Iran and Hezbollah" (https://www.meforum.org/60343/the-israeli-army-is-unprepared-for-a-ground), the Army is suffering from an acute neglect of some basic military needs.
The article opens:
"If
Israel has to go to war tomorrow against Iran or its Lebanese proxy
Hezbollah, there's a problem. The Israeli mechanized division that would
defend Israel's northern border, or enter Syria or Lebanon to eject
Iranian and pro-Iranian forces, [is] in bad shape. The 319th Division,
stationed in northern Israel, is short of equipment such as tanks, and
the equipment it does have is in poor condition, according to an Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) audit cited by Israeli news site Ynet.
"According
to the audit's findings, 52 percent of combat vehicles are unfit for
use and there is a 20 percent shortage of weapons and night-vision
equipment for soldiers," Ynet said.
"The auditors found that many
armored vehicles were lacking during proper maintenance checks, with 68
of them sitting uncovered and unprotected against the elements. Dozens
of other vehicles were found unusable due to faulty tires and broken
engines, ...
According to an audit by the IDF itself, 52 percent of the 319th Division's combat vehicles are unfit for use."
The Ynet expose sported photos of dilapidated military vehicles, and vehicles unprotected by tarps against the elements.
Auditors
identified similar neglect of the 319th Division's support units, as
well. "The Northern Command's logistics unit, upon which the 319th
Division relies in times of war, has a shortage in communications
equipment and vehicles for medical evacuation, and the division's
medical unit hasn't had a commanding officer or lieutenant for almost a
year."
"One reason for the 319th Division's woes is that there isn't enough equipment to meet both operational and training needs.
'The
audit found that about half of the 319th Division's Mark 4 Merkava
tanks and almost 100 communication devices have been lent to the Armored
Corps training unit, located more than 350 kilometers [217 miles] from
their main storage and maintenance areas in the north," Ynet said.
"These
tanks are worn out, impairing their emergency and combat capabilities. A
high-ranking officer in the IDF Northern Command said that the issue of
lending equipment and armored vehicles is a military decision, citing
the Mark 4's production lines being incapable of accommodating both the
standard and training units."
Mr. Peck
cogently provides a broader perspective, adding the observation that
"the 319th Division's woes reflect a larger pattern in the IDF. In the
1973 October War, Israeli units hastily mobilized to stem the surprise
Arab invasion found themselves with shortages of equipment and gear that
had been poorly maintained."
Mr. Peck doesn't
address this point, but we'd be amiss to omit the fact that the leftist
Israeli Establishment was considered criminally negligent in ignoring
warnings about a serious Arab attack prior to the Yom Kippur war. Arab
invaders and leftist Jewish arrogance together killed over 2,500 of the
Israeli Army's best young soldiers, many of whom were killed fighting
heroically while being massively outnumbered. Reports like these raise
the question of whether the Israeli government is repeating history.
"In
the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War, Israeli troops suffered from shortages
of basic items, from food and waterto ammunition, as well as poorly
trained logistics personnel.
"The IDF may have only hours to prepare for battle along Israel's northern border.
"Ironically,
the IDF – which prides itself on flexibility to rapidly adapt to the
chaos of battle – bases its approach on the mission-oriented tactics of
the World War II German army. Yet despite being a virtuoso on the
battlefield, the Wehrmacht's logistics skills were often lacking: German
troops constantly ran out of fuel, ammunition and food during Operation
Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.
"... as this
writer learned while observing an Israeli armored brigade on maneuvers
along the Golan Heights in February 2019, the IDF may have only hours to
prepare for battle along Israel's northern border. Time to fix
mistakes is a luxury Israel does not have," the article concludes.
(The
author of that article, Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the
National Interest, and a Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum.)
***
However,
the exquisitely blended blundering bluster of the Army should be
measured against the tangible steps the Army has indeed been
courageously taking in confronting impending national security threats:
All-Women tank crews. Last week (at the approach to the consummation of
the Holy Weeks of Shovavim), it was reported that the Israeli Army is
introducing all female tank combat crews, apparently to protect the
country from ISIS attacks in the South, and the like. No, we couldn't
have made this up: https://www.jns.org/the-idfs-pioneering-all-female-tank-crews-provide-strategic-protection-for-israels-south/#
Apparently,
the Israeli Army has upgraded the religious standards of their military
"Equality" crusade. No "Ta'aroves" (gender mixing) in these tanks, R"L,
nor any need for those pesky mechiztos, like those hanging in some
Chareidi buses.
Why in the world? Has recent
exposure of the human-trafficking agenda of the Army's female draft
prompted Teshuva (repentance) at the highest levels? Has Draft Office
Commander of Vice Avner Lotati finally been sent to work in Hollywood?
Well, if so, why are there an estimated several dozen girls still
languishing in military prisons Four and Six, wishing to avoid
conscription into the Mizron Tzahali Paradigm?
Well,
perhaps, this Army frumming initiative may have been reciprocal in
nature. Perhaps this overture is the Army's way of telegraphing
"hakarat hatov" (a "thank you") in response to recent cooperation by a
handful of trailblazing frum women, who've lately been spotted providing
the IDF free headhunter services, by naively sending ostensibly "weak"
girls into Rayon Dat interrogations. (Presumably, this is being done
with the best of intentions - to save the "weak" girls from falling into
the Army (the latter being the very goal-by-design of the Rayon Dat).)
But
questions still abound. Will the female tank personnel be provided
tefillin, to actualize Spiritual Equality with the men? Will there be an
accompanying Yo'etzet attached to every unit? What about an Ayin-Horah
lady on call, if fighting ever gets really difficult for these neshei
chayil? Another major question remaining is: will these
Equality-showcasing units units be open to heterosexual women as
well?...
