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Steven Brizel's avatar

The IDF brass which sold the country on the idea of a smaller and smarter IDF snd reliance on high tech snd who as in 1973 ignored and disdained intelligence should resign Their performance was as awful as the US naval brass before Pearl Harbor the French brass who thought that the Maginot Line was impregnable and the British who never thought that Singapore would be conquered by land

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Les Vitailles's avatar

" under Netanyahu’s direction throughout this war, Israel has made remarkable, game-changing achievements"

With Yoav Gallant as Defense Minister. It's too early to do a Stalinist airbrushing of his contributions.

Netanyahu's main achievement, in my view, was to stand up to crack-pot ideas like setting up a Palestinian state in exchange for Saudi ties, or the three-stage Gaza withdrawal that would allow Hamas to restore its power.

That he is in the clutches of the ultra-orthodox parties during the war is in part due to opposition members who came from Likud but refuse to work with it while Netanyahu is PM. Gideon Saar, until recently, was in that group. They forced Netanyahu to rely on the ultra-orthodox.

Naftali Bennet was a talented, successful PM and the fact that, unlike 2021, there were no Israeli-Arab demonstrations, is in part thanks to his inclusive government. Avigdor Lieberman has been an astute and prescient Foreign and Defense minister. Fortunately, Israel has plenty of talent and, with a good friend back in the White House, can look to a post-Netanyahu era with confidence.

The treatment of a distinguished and dedicated officer like Yoav Gallant, is a disgrace.

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