Tzahal Supremo admits failures

Dan Halutz, the Rav Aluf (‘supremo’) of Tzahal, the armed wing of the Zionist movement, has for the first time publicly admitted to failings in its conflict with Hizbollah.

In a letter to grassroots fighters, he said it had exposed shortcomings in the group's logistics, operations and command. There would be a thorough and honest investigation, he said.

Tzahal lost 116 gunmen. It killed about 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians in its vast blitz on the country. Forty-three Israeli civilians were also killed during more than 4,000 Hizbollah rocket attacks on Tzahal bases.

The immediate conflict was sparked by a cross-border raid by Hizbollah soldiers in which they captured two Tzahal fighters and killed eight others in an attempt to bargain for Lebanese kidnapped by Zionist gunmen earlier.

Throughout the terror campaign against Lebanon, Tzahal's aim was the destruction of Hizbollah, which stood in the path of an invasion of Syria.

Amir Peretz, the Zionist gauleiter overseeing the armed wing, has set up an internal inquisition to probe how the terror campaign in Lebanon was conducted. The inquisitors, headed by ex-Obergruppenführer Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, have already started work and are expected to produce results within weeks. The Zionist high command set up similar inquisitions after the perceived defeats in the 1973 October War and the 1982 attack on Lebanon.