'Israel run by band of incompetent losers who sent people to die'

Zehava Gal-On, the chairwoman of Meretz, wrote a scathing post on social media denouncing Netanyahu in the wake of a damning report into his handling of 2014 Gaza war.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Updated: MAY 6, 2016 16:55
Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On presenting the party's diplomatic platform (photo credit: MERETZ)
Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On presenting the party's diplomatic platform
(photo credit: MERETZ)
The head of the left-wing opposition movement Meretz wrote a scathing post on social media Friday denouncing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government as “a band of losers.”
Zehava Gal-On, the chairwoman of Meretz, reacted to the leaked copy of the draft of a report by the state comptroller which reportedly includes damning conclusions about Netanyahu and his handling of the 2014 Gaza war.
“The main conclusion to draw from the draft report – and I’m going to write this in the most delicate way possible – is that a band of losers is running this country and a band of incompetents sent people to their deaths,” Gal-On wrote.
Israel’s political establishment is waiting with anticipation for the release of what some are calling a withering report by the state comptroller, retired judge Yosef Shapira, about flaws in the execution of the 2014 war against Hamas by the three main protagonists – Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, and then-IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Benny Gantz.
Channel 2 and the liberal daily Haaretz reported on Thursday that the report will include harsh criticism of all three figures. Those who have seen the contents of the report say that it is more damning than the Winograd Commission report which probed the Olmert government and the army’s handling of the 2006 Lebanon conflict.
Aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday assailed Shapira for leaking details of the report to the press.
“This report is not a serious one, written by a comptroller who isn’t serious and who looks to generate newspaper headlines and leaks the main points of the report before it is released,” a source close to the premier said. “We reject the claims in the report if indeed this is what appears there.”
Netanyahu aides say the report was leaked with the intent to politically damage the premier.
“Netanyahu and Ya’alon decided that they are good enough to handle the war themselves,” the Meretz leader wrote. “From their point of view, the other ministers in the cabinet are apparently stupid, so why bother explaining to them too much on the war Israel is waging. It’s too much for them.”
“The prime minister and the defense minister think that the folks sitting with them in the cabinet room are not serious enough to share information with,” Gal-On wrote.
The comptroller’s report is said to levy criticism at Netanyahu and Ya’alon for failing to keep the cabinet in the loop regarding the defense establishment’s warnings of possible renewed conflict with Hamas in the days leading up to Operation Protective Edge.
The report also faults the Netanyahu government for not convening to discuss the threat posed by Hamas’ network of underground tunnels.