Netanyahu, Kochavi make surprise visit to IDF base in central Israel

The visit to the emergency storage unit came after IDF Ombudsman Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Brick harshly criticized the decision-making processes of the IDF.

By URI BOLLAG
Updated: JANUARY 30, 2019 17:16
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Sirkin Base (photo credit: ARIEL HERMONI / DEFENSE MINISTRY)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Sirkin Base
(photo credit: ARIEL HERMONI / DEFENSE MINISTRY)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief-of-Staff Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi made a surprise visit on Wednesday to the IDF's Sirkin base, to examine the army's preparedness for war.
Netanyahu and Kochavi arrived at the Emergency Storage Unit, located outside of the village of Kfar Sirkin, accompanied by several top ranking generals and toured the base's storage units and held assessments on  readiness for emergency situations.
"The IDF is prepared for defense as well as for a crushing attack," Netanyahu said., adding that " my impression is that there is readiness for orders." 
The prime minister praised the logistical, physical and mechanical preparedness for war and said that even though there was still room for improvement in certain areas, he believed that the troops would carry over the great power from the base to the battlefield.
Netanyahu would continue paying surprise visits to IDF units, the prime minister office said.
The visit to the Emergency Storage Unit came after IDF Ombudsman Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Brick harshly criticized the decision-making processes of the IDF General Staff as well as the situation in the Ground Forces.
 In a scathing report, released last June to the security cabinet and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Brick charged that the current situation in the IDF was “worse than it was at the time of the Yom Kippur War” in 1973.
Anna Ahronheim and Jerusalem Post Staff  contributed to this article.