OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A top Israeli general resigned his post on Wednesday, September 13, over the fiasco 33-day war against Lebanon, amid calls for Chief-of-Staff Dan Halutz to do the same.
Major General Udi Adam, who led Israel's northern command during the war, tendered his resignation as a storm of criticism over the war looked set to push into a second month, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The chief of staff has accepted Adam's request and he will be replaced in accordance with IDF (Israel Defense Forces) procedures," the army said.
"The state of Israel definitely owes (Adam) a great debt," Defense Minister Amir Peretz said shortly after the announcement.
"No doubt we need to examine the meaning of the (move), why he decided to do it ... such an announcement by a general cannot be ignored."
On Adam's watch, Lebanon's Hizbullah resistance group took prisoner two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in a cross-border operation on July 12.
The ensuing war left 162 Israelis, mostly soldiers, killed in die-hard battles with Hizbullah fighters and rocket attacks on northern Israel.
The humiliating performance of the elite Golani Brigades in battles against Hizbullah in southern Lebanon had cost its commander, Brigadier General Moshe Tamir, his prestigious post in the middle of the war.
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Adam's resignation made embattled Israeli leaders teeter as a new resignation row simmers for them.
"The chief of staff should take General Adam's example. He admitted to the government that the army was not ready for the war and he has to take responsibility," National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said.
Amram Mitzna, a former head of northern command, former Labor leader and former mayor of the northern metropolis Haifa – a favorite target of Hizbullah rockets during the war - also called for Halutz to step down.
"Adam's resignation was inevitable. It's just the beginning. The chief of staff cannot remain in his job. He no longer enjoys the confidence of regional commanders, officers and soldiers," he asserted.
Amihai Ayalon, a leading member of the centre-left Labor party, said his party leader Peretz should also follow Adam's example.
"Peretz should change jobs. General Adam should not be the only one to pay the price of the shortcomings," he said.
Army reservists and members of the public have repeatedly called on Halutz, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Peretz to resign amid fury over the government's unwillingness to commission a full-scale independent inquiry into the war.
Embattled Olmert appointed on Monday a retired judge to head an inquiry into the way the government and the military handled the costly war, instead of the public probe he initially announced last month.
Seven ministers still prefer a state commission of inquiry, the most powerful type of public investigation available in Israel.
Olmert, whose approval ratings have slumped during his four months in office, has been lambasted by reservists, members of the public and government allies for refusing to back a full-scale independent state commission.
On Saturday, 30,000 Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv in favor of a state commission, citing confused orders, food, fuel and water shortages, neglect of the homefront and the slowness to launch a major ground assault.
Israeli military planners had envisioned a swift victory without a large ground invasion.
That strategy failed with about 10,000 Israeli troops embroiled in fierce fighting with Hizbullah's well-armed and trained fighters.
just because he thinks the war was unjustified and that many thousands civilians have died, he is an idiot???
its people like u who want to see war, murder and turmoil in this world
Not the fact that he thinks the war is unjusitfied. It is the fact that he and his units SUCKED out there. He made terrible moves with his soldiers.
That is why.
I don't think you fully comprehended my post when you wrote a negative rep calling me a "war monger".
Maybe you should have read your own post like where it says: "On Adam's watch, Lebanon's Hizbullah took prisoner two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in a cross-border operation on July 12."
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