Ex-generals to Halutz: Quit!

Peretz defended himself claiming his predecessor Shaul Mofaz was responsible for situation.

By YAAKOV KATZ
A group of former generals has drafted a letter in which they call on Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz to resign because of what they are calling "his poor management" of the the war in Lebanon. The generals said they felt Halutz needed to take responsibility for the outcome of the war and the mishaps and mistakes that occurred throughout. Ha-lutz invited the former generals to a meeting next week before their letter became public. "Someone needs to take responsibility for what happened in Lebanon," one of them said Wednesday evening. "We cannot just sit back and watch what is going on without doing anything." Meanwhile, Defense Minister Amir Peretz defended himself in face of public calls for his resignation, claiming Wednesday that his predecessor Shaul Mofaz was responsible for creating the unprepared situation in which the IDF found itself when it embarked on a war against Hizbullah. "One thing I can say for sure is that, despite my lack of experience, I stood up to the challenges and the difficult situation that I inherited from the people with experience," he said in a speech at the Army Radio awards ceremony in Herzliya. The political echelon, Peretz said, needed to be investigated without any cover-up. "I am also willing to be investigated. I want to be investigated and am asking to be investigated," he said. "One thing I assure is that there will be the same level of in-depth investigation for both the military and the political echelons." Peretz said that he had yet to decide if he would support the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, as several members of the Labor Party have demanded, in place of the commission established by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and led by former Mossad chief Nahum Admoni. On Tuesday, the IDF held a conference involving all the senior officers who took part in the war. At the meeting, Channel 10 revealed, Brig-Gen. Guy Tzur, commander of Division 162 which fought in the eastern sector, admitted to mistakes during the fighting and that if necessary he would resign. Brig-Gen. Erez Zuckerman, commander of another division, also admitted to having made mistakes and hinted that if needed he too would submit his resignation.