{"id":143451,"date":"2026-06-03T10:59:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/143451\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T10:59:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:59:04","slug":"idf-chief-during-second-lebanon-war-says-israel-needs-new-lebanon-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/143451\/","title":{"rendered":"IDF chief during Second Lebanon War says Israel needs new Lebanon strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Dan Halutz, who served as IDF<\/a> chief of staff during the Second Lebanon War (2006), called on Israel\u2019s senior military leadership to take a stand against the political echelon and argue that the current reality in Lebanon has become \u201cuseless\u201d in an interview with 103FM on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Halutz, the problems in Lebanon stem from the fact that Israeli soldiers had been sent into danger without a clearly defined objective.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, these are our wonderful soldiers, who do everything with courage, but they do not know how to deliver results that were never defined,\u201d Halutz said, equating the soldiers in Lebanon to sitting ducks.<\/p>\n

Additionally, he said, the capture of Beaufort Ridge was \u201cmeaningless without a grand strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu<\/a> was looking for symbols,\u201d he insisted. \u201cSuddenly, he remembered former prime minister Menachem Begin\u2019s symbol from 44 years ago and latched onto it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"IDFIDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon, published April 13, 2026; illustrative. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)<\/p>\n

Halutz stated the IDF\u2019s<\/a> top commanders need to be the ones to tell their government superiors that the situation has gone on for too long, and a different solution is needed, as criticism is not likely to come from Netanyahu\u2019s political circle.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, I would expect that within his silent inner circle, someone would speak up,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are people there who I once thought had their own positions and a spine, and today I see only weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halutz said, looking at Netanyahu’s inner circle, he only saw weakness<\/p>\n

When asked if he was speaking about specific individuals, Halutz said he didn\u2019t believe anyone in Netanyahu\u2019s circle was capable of saying what they truly believed.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir hearts and mouths are not the same. That is what characterizes the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, Halutz stressed, the military echelon would not be able to disobey direct orders from the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the responsibility of the army\u2019s leader to stand before the government and tell it that these paths have been exhausted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defeating Netanyahu will likely come down to Eisenkot or Bennett, Halutz said<\/p>\n

With the new election season beginning, Halutz also assessed the state of the opposition and criticized several of its leaders, noting that the most likely contestants to defeat Netanyahu would be Naftali Bennett or Gadi Eisenkot.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart leans more toward Eisenkot, but my head is with Bennett<\/a>,\u201d he said. \u201cThe heart is emotion, and the mind is the correct analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYair Lapid and Benny Gantz have no value,\u201d Halutz criticized. \u201cGantz should retire from personal responsibility, and Lapid has basically already retired. He joined Bennett, and that is the end of it. He erased his party.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an unexpected move, Halutz also praised the Arab parties, noting that they, at least, \u201care uniting their strength,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least they sit among themselves, do not leak their objections to one another, and come as one organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will increase their strength,\u201d Halutz added. \u201cAnd we, the wise Israeli Jews, sit and fight with one another and fail to reach agreements instead of maximizing our power.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Dan Halutz, who served as IDF chief of staff during the Second Lebanon War (2006), called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[41,423,93,2560,179,20207],"class_list":["post-143451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lebanon","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-idf","tag-lebanon","tag-lebanon-war","tag-military","tag-second-lebanon-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116685829803300292","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}