Pendant ce temps, la guerre des généraux...

On peut admettre que, désormais, ”the fog of the war” commence à se dissiper sur l’état réel du conflit entre Israël et le Hezbollah. L’indication la plus nette des difficultés de Tsahal nous est sans aucun doute donnée par ce que Uri Avnery désigne comme “la guerre des généraux”, dans un excellent article qu’il publie le 10 août sur le site Information Clearing House. (Avnery, journaliste et écrivain israélien, membre actif du mouvement pour la paix Gush Shalom.)

“La guerre des généraux” est marquée surtout par la querelle entre le chef d’état-major et son commandant de théâtre au Liban Sud (voir aussi Haaretz du 9 août), mais aussi par les querelles avec les civils.

« Now everybody already admits that something basic has gone wrong in this war. The proof: the War of the Generals, that previously started only after the conclusion of a war, has now become public while the war is still going on.

» The Chief-of-Staff, Dan Halutz, has found the culprit: Udi Adam, the chief of the Northern Command. He has practically dismissed him in the middle of the battle. That is the old ploy of the thief shouting “Stop thief!” After all, it is obvious that the person mainly to blame for the failures of the war is Halutz himself, with his foolish belief that Hizbullah could be defeated by aerial bombardment alone.

» But it is not only at the top of the army that mutual accusations are flying around. The army command accuses the government, which is retaliating in kind.

» On the eve of his downgrading, Udi Adam publicly accused the government of tying his hands. Meaning: the government is guilty. Ehud Olmert did not remain silent and declared that the army had not submitted any plans for widening the campaign. That's to say: if you are incompetent, don't blame me!

» To justify himself, Olmert added a significant sentence: “From the first day of the war, the government has not refused the army a single request!” In other words, it is the Chief-of-Staff who makes policy and conducts the war, while the political leadership just rubber stamps everything that the army “requests”.

» But this is a sterile debate, because it ignores the main fact, which is becoming clearer from day to day: it is altogether impossible to win this war. That's why nothing is working as planned. »

Mis en ligne le 11 août 2006 à 10H37