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Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser

In the wake of media reports to the effect that IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi presented a position to the Security Cabinet that rehabilitation of the IDF would take years, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would like to make it clear that such remarks were never made* and, in any case, cannot be interpreted as if the IDF is in a situation that requires rehabilitation. In the briefing, the Chief-of-Staff presented the IDF's fundamental and thorough investigation process, including issues and lessons the correction of which will be implemented in the framework of a multi-year working plan.

*Ashkenazi: IDF needs years to become
satisfactorily prepared

By Aluf Benn and Nir Hasson, Haaretz
Correspondents Last update - 07:24
22/03/2007

Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi warned the security
cabinet Wednesday that the
Israel Defense Forces would need time to reach
the necessary level of
preparedness.

"Do not think the army will be ready in three
months," Ashkenazi told the
security cabinet during the meeting. A team of
senior IDF officers briefed
the ministers on the lessons of the Second
Lebanon War.

Ashkenazi said several years would be needed.
Preference would be given to
forces likely to participate in dangerous
operations.

He told the security cabinet that when he took
over as chief of staff, he
considered interfering with the IDF's in-house
investigations into its
problems and performance during the war, and said
he decided not to do so.
Dan Halutz was chief of staff during the war.

The head of the General Staff's doctrine and
training department, Brigadier
General Danny Biton, presented the security
cabinet with the main findings
of more than 20 IDF in-house investigations since
the war.

The ministers commended the army on its openness
in exposing shortcomings.

"We are dealing with the debriefing of the army,
irrespective of the
Winograd Committee," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
said. "It is no replacement
for the lessons that we must learn regarding the
political-military
connection, and the translation of government
decisions into military
objectives."

"We always say it is necessary to move the fight
onto enemy territory as
quickly as possible," Olmert added. "But, when
you are faced with ballistic
missiles and indirect fire, even when you have
penetrated enemy territory to
a certain point, the enemy can still fire
missiles. The question is how to
apply this principle to the contemporary
battlefield."