Translation: Haim Ramon Slams Gallant - 11 Oct 2023 attack on Hezbollah
would have been disaster
Dr. Aaron Lerner 10 February 2025
I was among those who pushed for us to take out Hezbollah's missiles back in
October 2023.
I was wrong.
And Ramon explains below why we had to wait.
It wasn't an easy wait for those of us who understood.
I even personally spent thousands of dollars on a broadband satellite modem
and a solar panel system in expectation that we wouldn't have phone service
or electricity.
If you understand Hebrew it is worthwhile to watch the Gallant interview.
You will be shocked to learn that then DM Gallant not only wasn't aware on
October 2023 of the "Jericho Wall" document which spelled out Hamas' plans
but that Gallant wasn't sure the IDF COS knew about it either.
The open source reports are that the chain of command in Military
Intelligence blocked material on Jericho Wall because it didn't jibe with
their disastrously wrong assessments.
You might share my disappointment that Amit Segal, who was interviewing
Gallant, didn't pivot from this stunning news to ask Gallant why he didn't
support legislation so that members of the security system - of any rank -
can reach out to the prime minister and defense minister with information
which they deem to be critical (today they could go to prison for such an
act).
You may not be surprised to learn that even though Gallant does understand
that "Jericho Wall" predates the judicial reform initiatives and that Hamas
and Hezbollah have been preparing for many many years to destroy Israel that
he STILL thinks that somehow the attack was launched in part because of
judicial reform and Israeli activity on the Temple Mount.
This is the link to view the interview of former DM Gallant on Channel 12
https://www.mako.co.il/news-military/2025_q1/Article-f0dc39bc717d491027.htm
This is the link for Haim Ramon's scathing attack
https://x.com/ramonhaim/status/1888589858710372734
Here is a ChatGPT0 translation of the Ramon post
The interviews given by Defense Minister Gallant to Yedioth Ahronoth and
Channel 12 News were full of half-truths and outright lies. But it seems to
me that Gallant reached the peak of his falsehoods in his description of his
positions regarding the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, both regarding his
claim that he proposed attacking Hezbollah in October and regarding his
opposition to attacking Hezbollah at the end of August.
Gallant recounts how, on October 11, he proposed opening a second front
against Hezbollah in Lebanon, but Bibi did not allow him to. Gallant
explains that if we had started the war against Hezbollah first, including a
ground maneuver into Lebanon, "we would have achieved the physical
elimination of a significant portion of Hezbollah," and then we could have
"taken divisions from the north, transferred them south, operated in Khan
Yunis and Rafah simultaneously with operations in Gaza," and salvation would
have come to Zion, with Gallant as Israel's great savior.
Gallant is lying and misleading in almost every word of his account. On
October 11, the IDF was still completing its takeover of the southern
border. At that stage, when Hamas and Hezbollah were at the peak of their
strength and preparedness, Israel was at the peak of its weakness, the IDF
was battered, and even the Chief of Staff himself had low confidence in the
ground forces' capabilities. (Even weeks later, when the Chief of Staff
presented the war plan to the war cabinet, he explained that the ground
maneuver would begin with a slow and gradual attack only in the northern
part of the Gaza Strip, instead of a rapid, simultaneous attack across the
entire Strip, "to restore the IDF's self-confidence after October 7"- and
Gallant supported this).
Furthermore, until that time, the prevailing security assessment was that
the IDF was not capable of waging a war on two fronts simultaneously,
certainly not when one of those fronts was against Hezbollah. In other
words, Gallant's proposal would have resulted in halting any possible
maneuver in Gaza for the entire duration of the campaign in Lebanon.
Gallant mockingly describes Netanyahu's fear that thousands of Israeli
civilians would die from Hezbollah's residual missile capability if Israel
opened a second front, but he "forgets" to mention that the IDF's reference
scenario at the time was as follows: A full-scale attack on Hezbollah at the
height of its strength would cost the lives of hundreds of soldiers, and
even if Israel managed to destroy the vast majority of Hezbollah's missiles
in a surprise attack, the residual capability that remained would still
result in the deaths of thousands of civilians.
Noam Amir recounts how, three months before October 7, military reporters
attended a briefing at the National Security Council with senior IDF
officers. The scenario presented to them for a war against Hezbollah was as
follows: On the first day of the war, Hezbollah would fire 6,000 rockets at
Israel; on the second day, 5,000 rockets; on the third day, 5,000 rockets;
and only on the fourth day would the IDF succeed in reducing Hezbollah's
daily rocket fire to 1,400-2,000.
The military reporters asked the Home Front Command commander how the
command would handle such a scale of fire. His response was: "There will be
destruction on an unimaginable scale." The reporters then asked the Air
Force commander, "Can the Iron Dome handle 6,000 rockets?" His response:
"There is a reasonable chance that in the first few days, there will be no
Iron Dome. It will take us at least three to four days [to activate it]
because Hezbollah knows how to strike it."
At that time, the IDF was at its weakest: The emergency warehouses contained
only two to three weeks' worth of ammunition; the maneuvering divisions were
far from full operational readiness, many of their reservists had yet to be
mobilized, and those who had been mobilized were only just beginning
refresher training. In the north, there was only one division, while the
other divisions were either in the south or in the process of mobilization.
(As a reminder, just two days earlier, IDF forces had completed the clearing
of Hamas forces from the Gaza border communities). The northern settlements
had not yet been evacuated, and thousands of Radwan Force fighters were
positioned just a short distance from the border, inside tunnels and heavily
fortified positions.
In other words, if Israel had launched an attack against Hezbollah on
October 11, it would not have had enough ground forces in the north to
confront the Radwan Force troops stationed at the border, and they could
have penetrated Israel, seized several communities, and taken hundreds of
Israelis captive. Then, after two to three weeks of fighting, the IDF would
have reached a catastrophic situation where its aircraft would have no bombs
left to drop on Hezbollah forces, and its artillery would have no shells
left to fire at them.
Fortunately, those who saved us from the disaster Gallant was about to bring
upon us were Gantz and Eisenkot, who, together with Netanyahu and Dermer,
rejected this reckless proposal.
While Gallant wanted to attack in the north as early as October 11, when
Hezbollah was at its strongest and the IDF at its weakest, a few months
later-after the IDF had strengthened, acquired ammunition, and its ground
forces had gained combat experience in Gaza, while Hezbollah had been worn
down by the IDF's gradual planned escalation and the continuous Air Force
strikes on its missile stockpiles and Radwan Force troops at the
border-suddenly, the Defense Minister changed his stance 180 degrees
regarding Lebanon and worked to end Operation Iron Swords without launching
a large-scale military campaign against Hezbollah.
On August 29, Gallant presented a document to the cabinet in which he
proposed reaching a hostage deal not only to end the war in Gaza but also to
facilitate an arrangement in the north to prevent war with Hezbollah and to
soften Iran's intentions for revenge against Israel. In other words, Gallant
proposed that Israel surrender in the south to Hamas and surrender in the
north-before even confronting Hezbollah-so as not to provoke Iran.
Had the cabinet adopted Gallant's second irresponsible proposal regarding
Lebanon, the consequences would have been as follows: The nauseating
hostage-return ceremonies would have taken place with Yahya Sinwar presiding
over the event; thousands of Hamas terrorists who have since been eliminated
would still be alive; Nasrallah would be delivering victory speeches;
Hezbollah's entire leadership would still be alive; Operation Beepers would
never have been launched; thousands of Hezbollah fighters would still have
both eyes and ten fingers; and the Radwan Force would be stationed along the
fence, right next to the northern communities, with the ability to inflict a
disaster seven times greater than October 7. Iran's air defense systems
would still be fully operational, and its influence in the region would have
reached new heights.
But Gallant didn't stop at trying to persuade the cabinet to halt the
impending attack against Hezbollah. The day before Operation Beepers was
launched, Gallant leaked a criminal disclosure to Ronen Bergman about
"reckless steps the Israeli government is planning in the north." This
criminal leak-which has yet to be investigated by the police and Shin
Bet-could have led to the failure of Operation Beepers, which had been in
preparation for years, and prevented the severe blow we dealt to Hezbollah.
In an interview with Nadav Eyal, Gallant boasted about how he worked to
assassinate Nasrallah in late September 2023, while Netanyahu hesitated in
giving the authorization. This is an outright lie. Gallant actually worked
to prevent the assassination operation. Gallant insisted that Nasrallah's
assassination could only proceed with American approval. Since the Biden
administration opposed escalating the conflict in Lebanon and sought a
ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, it was clear that no approval would
be given, and in such a case, the cabinet would not have approved action
that explicitly contradicted American policy. Fortunately, Gallant's
position was not accepted, and this crucial assassination went ahead.
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