Former chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Moshe Ya'alon launched a scathing attack against the Israel Air Force on Tuesday, citing the actions of senior commanders in the IAF during the Second Lebanon War as one of the reasons for Israel's inability to obtain its objectives in the campaign. "Those in blue uniforms exhibited tyranny [during the war]," Ya'alon said at a conference in Latrun. "There was an 'airborne agenda' in the offices of decision-makers, and those in blue uniforms felt it was their chance to put on a show. That's why even OC Northern Command [Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam] was not invited to the deliberation." "Sadly, after the war they placed the responsibility on their underlings or on those who served before them." Ya'alon also criticized the communications between the military echelon and the government, calling it "a failure." "Going to war without a diplomatic objective and a clear time frame is the original sin, the results of which were evident later on," he said. "As opposed to the Grapes of Wrath operation in 1996, when the cabinet sat with the top military echelon for dozens of deliberations on the matter, prior to the Lebanon war the security cabinet did not amass insights regarding Hizbullah." "Despite the fact that such a situation could have been averted, the fear of becoming bogged down in Lebanon was what prevented them from operating the ground-forces maneuver on time, as per the plan. The only option presented to the political echelon by the military echelon was a sterile aerial option, and they imagined that they had the trick that could bring us accomplishments [in the field]."
