Report proves ‘paper tiger Israel can be destroyed’

January 31, 2008

JERUSALEM – A government probe released here yesterday largely blaming Israel’s military for failures during the 2006 war against Hezbollah proves the Jewish state is a “paper tiger” that can be destroyed, Palestinian terrorist leaders told WND today during a series of interviews.

“The report shows how Israel was defeated in war and proves the Zionist army is paper tiger and that any other Arab and Muslim organization that has a real will like Hezbollah can defeat the Zionist army,” said Muhammad Abdel Al, spokesman and senior leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terrorist organization.

Speaking from Gaza, Abdel-Al said Israel’s “failed” Lebanon war emboldens him to believe “the future is for Islam. It is only a question of time as to when the Israelis will be defeated.”

Abu Ahmed, a leader of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, commented the war probe “proves without the help of the Americans, Israel will very soon disappear. Only the American support keeps Israel in the region. The Zionist army we thought was invincible has been defeated.”

Abu Abdullah, a leader in the Gaza Strip of Hamas’ so-called military wing, told WND the war probe “shows once and for all that what the Lebanese resistance movement achieved and what Hamas brought in Israel’s disengagement in Gaza is a new era in which the equilibrium of power has changed. There is no chance the equilibrium where the Israeli army is main player will return.”

A senior leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, speaking on condition his name be withheld, said of the war probe: “It was shocking to us. The Israeli army is not so professional and has been eroded by Western, materialistic values. Unlike the Muslims, who have a solid ideological base. Hezbollah fights with faith in Allah. That’s how to win.”

The Al Aqsa Brigades leader spoke on condition he name be withheld, because he is on a list of 178 terrorists granted amnesty last June by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Yesterday marked the release of the long-anticipated Winograd Commission probing Israel’s performance during the war in Lebanon. The probe was widely expected to cast blame on the Israeli leadership, particularly Olmert, who has faced rampant criticism and widespread calls to resign over his handling of the war and his decision to launch a massive ground operation during its final 60 hours. Thirty-three troops died during the large ground operation, for which the Israeli army had petitioned from the start of the 34-day conflict.

Instead of focusing on Olmert, the Winograd Commission largely blamed the Israel Defense Forces for their performance, sparking some accusations from Olmert’s political opponents that the report was corrupt.

In a dramatic press conference yesterday, retired judge Eliyahu Winograd, who headed the committee, criticized the IDF as “fail[ing] to meet most of the missions and challenges they were assigned.”

“In an overall assessment of the war, we can say that it was a major and serious missed opportunity. Israel embarked on a long war, which it initiated, and which ended without Israel achieving a clear military victory,” he said, reading from a prepared statement before throngs of news cameras.

Continued Winograd: “A paramilitary organization of several thousand fighters stood for a number of weeks before the most powerful army in the Middle East, which enjoyed complete air superiority and great advantages in size and technology. The rocket attacks of Hezbollah against the Israeli home front continued throughout the entire war, and the IDF did not provide an effective counter to this.”

The full 610-page Winograd report was presented to Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak last night. Only parts were made public.

The sections that were made public slam nearly every unit of the IDF for being “unprepared” and unfit for war.

“On the basis of any standard and realistic expectations, the ground forces – and thus the entire IDF – failed to carry out the missions assigned to them,” the report stated.

The committee said “basic values” previously held by the IDF had been “undone.”

“We had the impression that along with expressions of renewal and revived commitment to completing missions [made] after the war, there is a sense of crisis in the army, both inside the [IDF] and also in its relations with Israeli society,” the report states.

“The restoring of the IDF’s standing needs to be based on genuine commitment,” and the army, the committee writes, should once more become professional, trained and disciplined.

To interview Aaron Klein, contact M. Sliwa Public Relations by e-mail, or call 973-272-2861.

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