Cost-cutting and criticism of IDF almost caused catastrophe, says army chief

Relentless pressure to cut the defense budget  and the public’s failure to properly appreciate the importance of the IDF’s career soldiers, almost brought about a national catastrophe, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said in an interview published Thursday.

“We almost had a disaster in 5774,” Gantz told the Yedioth Ahronoth daily, referring to the just-ended Hebrew calendar year. “Considerable damage was done [to the IDF]. Israeli society almost committed suicide and sacrificed the entity that is the Israel Defense Forces.”

Gantz’s comments came amid concerns over the defense budget, pressure to reduce the ranks of career soldiers, and damage to the image of the career soldier in the public perception and as played out on TV satire shows, according to Yedioth.

In a mini media blitz ahead of the Yom Kippur holiday, Gantz also spoke to the Haaretz daily, telling the broadsheet that Israel could reach a long term ceasefire with Gaza if it offered enough economic incentives.

“Hamas, in its present condition, will not soon allow the security situation with us to deteriorate again,” he said.

Both interviews published Thursday were previews of stories set to be published the next day.

Gantz told Yedioth he sees Israel as being in a stronger position now with regards to regional threats.

“Israel’s strategic position at the start of the [Jewish] new year is better than it was at the start of the year before it,” he said.

The seven-week long Operation Protective Edge fought against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, during July and August, put the IDF under public and international scrutiny on its readiness and methods of operation.

Gantz rejected suggestions that the attack tunnels dug by Hamas under the border into Israel had taken the security establishment by surprise or been overlooked.

“The IDF, the government, the members of the cabinet, the members of the Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, knew and understood the threat from the tunnels,” Gantz said.

Destroying the tunnels became one of the main goals of the operation, though Gazan fighters still managed to infiltrate into Israel killing several IDF soldiers in ambushes.

Overall, Gantz saw the operation as a great success.

“A lot of officers from armies around the world came here and said to us: ‘Your professional activities are unprecedented.'”

“We showed them standards that they couldn’t comprehend,” he boasted.

Despite the intensity of the campaign in Gaza, during which Hamas and other Palestinian groups fired over 4,000 rockets at Israeli towns — even briefly forcing a closure of Ben-Gurion Airport — Gantz maintained that Lebanon is actually the country’s biggest concern. But he stressed the importance of temperance.

“The threat against the citizens of Israel from Lebanon is much wider than from Gaza,” he said. “So does that mean I need to quickly go to Jerusalem and recommend to attack Lebanon? We need to understand risk management.”

Speaking to Haaretz, Gantz said that in the IDF’s assessment, there was a slim chance of another round of hostilities breaking out in 2015. He noted that even though “our enemies have other challenges” and that “both Hezbollah and Hamas don’t want to start a war with us right now,” the security situation could still worsen because of fallout from “isolated events” of violence emanating from the Strip.

Gantz said keeping the peace with Gaza will require “carrots.” The joint Israel-UN-Palestinian Authority oversight program to bring more goods into the Strip, established after the open-ended ceasefire that ended the hostilities, should be continued but in a “sane manner.”

“The Gaza Strip must be permitted to import goods,” he said. “In the end, there are 1.8 million people, surrounded by Egypt and Israel. These people need to live.”

The IDF head added that he was always in favor of “hope in the face of fear. This is the key, in my eyes, to success.”

In another five months Gantz is expected to finish his term as chief of staff and leave the army after 37 years of service.