WarSclerotic

Military Ombudsman Maj. Gen. ‎‎(res.) Yitzhak Brik‎ on ‎‎Thursday criticized the findings of a ‎Knesset subcommittee that dismissed a report ‎in which he cautioned that the IDF Ground Forces are ‎not ready for war. ‎

In his report, published in September, Brik wrote that various ‎‎logistical, training and ‎personnel issues have ‎‎dramatically eroded the ‎army’s ‎ability to wage ‎war effectively.

The report prompted an investigation by Subcommittee for War Readiness, under the ‎Knesset Foreign Affairs ‎and ‎‎Defense Committee, whose members met with GOC Army ‎Headquarters Maj. Gen. Yaakov Barak and with several brigade and division commanders. ‎

On Wednesday, subcommittee chairman Col. (ret.) MK ‎Omer Bar-Lev ‎‎(Zionist Union) said the panel had ‎found that, contrary to Brik’s report, the ‎military’s war readiness has improved ‎significantly ‎since Operation Protective Edge in ‎‎2014. ‎

‎”The IDF ‎has improved its readiness and is, in fact, ‎ready ‎for war despite several weak points, most of ‎which ‎have been identified and have or are being ‎addressed,” Bar-Lev said. ‎

However, the following day, Brik said the subcommittee’s findings ‎were “categorically inconsistent with the gross ‎failures that impede the Ground Forces’ war ‎readiness, as illustrated in my report and in a report ‎by the defense establishment’s comptroller.”‎

He said his report had listed 15 serious issues ‎that undermine the military’s wartime ‎readiness, and the subcommittee failed to ‎address them.‎

“The members of ‎the subcommittee squandered a unique opportunity to ‎lead a courageous move that would extract the Ground ‎Forces from the crisis they face,” ‎Brik ‎said.

He also referred to what he described as “grave reports” from ‎Defense Establishment Comptroller‏ ‏Eitan Dahan about the army’s lack of readiness.

“Anyone who reads them is simply shocked by ‎the army’s incompetence, lack of discipline, lack ‎of integration and lack of checks and balances, as ‎well as by its failure to implement orders meant to ‎rectify these issues,”‎ Brike said.

“We must act to correct these flaws ‎before we are too late to preserve the IDF and its ‎strength, in the interests of Israel’s security.”