In a hastily arranged briefing for military reporters one sultry day last March, OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Dan Harel was detailing just how the IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip would take place. Harel found himself at the heart of one of the biggest rifts the nation has ever known. Predictions were apocalyptic.
In addition, Kassam rockets were hitting Israeli communities and the use of brute military force inside crowded Palestinian towns was the only solution for fighting back. Harel's military career seemed destined for an inglorious finish to say the least.
"I've already lost. Before we have even started [the disengagement]. I've lost," Harel lamented then in a rare moment of candor. This was unusual because as Israeli generals go, Harel seemed the least concerned with his image or legacy.
Faced with the formidable task of overall commander of the Gaza disengagement, Harel prepared for the worst. He spoke of a huge schism splitting the nation. He predicted gunfire with opponents of the disengagement and dozens of Israeli casualties.
He said there would be a huge logistical headache with thousands of vehicles and tens of thousands of troops operating in limited space. And he foretold of large forces taking on Palestinian militants trying to chase Israel out of the Gaza Strip in a bloody firefight.
Well it turned out that "Papa smurf" - as the settlers of Gush Katif called him because of his white beard - did not lose.
He succeeded not only in carrying out his mission and withdrawing the Jewish settlers and IDF forces from the Gaza Strip without injury, but also in presenting to the world the rarely seen image of an empathetic IDF.
Nevertheless, his tumultuous two years in command presented the stocky 50-yearold with a number of instances that could have tarred his leadership with failure: The killing of 20 Palestinian civilians in Rafah by a stray tank round; the deaths of Givati soldiers in tragic APC explosions, one in Zeitun and another along the tunnel-ridden Philadelphi corridor; numerous bloody incursions inside the Gaza Strip, the firing of Gaza Divisional commander Brig.-Gen. Shmuel Zakai, and the deployment of cannons again on the front for the first time since the 1967 war.
Critics were also jarred by his military roots as an artillery officer: He wasn't a product of the elite infantry units or the armored corps. He also shied away from the media, preferring the limelight be given to his commanders in the field.
The Jerusalem Post caught up with Harel during his last weeks as head of Southern Command - a post he is due to turn over to Maj.-Gen. Yoav Gallant next week. Although he is still ready for action, warning that in the Middle East anything could happen between now and the command handover, he was also ready to reflect back on his initial fears about the disengagement.
"First of all I believe I was realistic," Harel says. "The chance of succeeding was very low. You have to understand the meaning of success. Contrary to other military terms, here the meaning was national success. I don't think there was any question of whether physically we could carryout the disengagement. In the end if you bring enough people or force you can do it.
"It is really not a mechanical question, but one of how we as a society would emerge from this. It was an incident that sat on the rift between different political opinions. It was the first time in 38 years that the argument [came to a head] between those who hold fast to leaving the territories we captured in 1967 Netzarim, statements "succeed" at times. peppering his
with the word least a dozen
"We succeeded in avoiding casualties. We succeeded in maintaining the respect of those evacuated and we succeeded in this without causing irreparable damage," Harel said.
"When we started this process we assumed we'd come out with either a scratch, a crack or a schism. I think we succeeded in coming out with only a scratch," Harel said. "And that means and those who believe they are our political or ideological homelands. It was the first time that we reached a crossing of this rift line. So my concern was huge.
"In retrospect, Israeli society has apparently not been deeply harmed because of the way it was carried out. There are very many things that Israel society has to clarify for itself. There are many whose understanding of the world clashed with reality," Harel says.
Several weeks ago, at dusk on the day his troops rounded up and removed the last Jewish settlers from the last settlement in the Gaza Strip, Harel spoke to i in this will heal."
Harel was to have ended his 31 years of service after the disengagement, but was chosen, perhaps as a reward for a job well done, to be the IDF's military attach in Wa s h i n g t o n , the defense establishment's point man with its biggest strategic ally. He takes up the post from Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin this fall after a quick crash course for military attach s.
Harel, while avoiding media interviews during his career, was able to adjust handsomely to the spotlight trained on him while leading the disengagement. Before the operation he was actually against too much media access.
The media, in his eyes, were a bother and best controlled by pool reporting where the army could corral them in. When Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz intervened and sided with IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Miri Regev's view that the whole campaign be opened to the media, Harel took it in stride. He ended up appearing before the press daily, portraying the IDF in a refreshingly calm and informative voice.
At the General Staff round table - made up of infantry, armor men and pilots - Harel has been a sort of odd man out. He is only the third artillery officer to become a member of the General Staff. The first two held desk jobs decades ago while Harel was the first to become the head of a regional command.
Raised in the port city of Haifa, Harel was drafted into the pilots' course 31 years ago in the wake of the Yom Kippur War. He transferred to the artillery and rose through the ranks. He picked up his smooth and fluent English while attending the US Army artillery course at Fort Sill in Oklahoma.
