Retired Israeli General Yitzhak Breivik routinely criticizes the government and the army leadership for failing to achieve the war goals, attributing this to a lack of preparedness. the army with its current composition to win wars on many fronts, even on the Gaza But this time he adds a new and unprecedented dimension by warning that Israel is heading towards an abyss due to “the control of the hardliners in the government and the Israeli leadership’s deception by religious illusions” that have nothing to do with the security and military realities Israel faces.
In a new article published by Maariv, Brek, who held some of the highest positions in the Israeli army, asserted that the army is “not prepared for war, neither in defense nor in offense,” accusing the political leadership, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of being “unprepared for war. Benjamin Netanyahu and security ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and financial Bezalel Smotrich that it is captive to “Christian” religious visions that ignore the hard facts on the ground.
Breivik begins his article by emphasizing his absolute confidence in his assessments by recalling his long military career, stressing that his assessments do not come from a vacuum or from the position of a distant observer, but from the position of an expert who knows the details of the military institution, saying “I know the Israeli army from the inside more than anyone else.”
He lists a series of positions he has held, saying that he served in the army as commander of the armored corps, commanded the 36th regular division, served as deputy commander of the ground forces, commander of the Southern Corps, and commander of military colleges.
He was also for 10 years the commissioner for soldiers’ complaints (ombudsman), a job that enabled him to see firsthand the conditions of more than 1,600 military units in the land, air and sea corps, training, maintenance and infrastructure units.
Gen. Breivik notes that his experiences, from serving in the War of Attrition through the Yom Kippur War (1973) to his role in the First Lebanon War (1982), have given him a deep understanding of the army’s readiness and weaknesses, which he says qualifies him to issue this warning at a pivotal moment.
He adds that he did not just gather impressions, but read all the reports of the State Comptroller, the security establishment and military oversight, and found that their findings coincide with his conclusion that the army suffers from “serious gaps,” especially in the ground forces.
“Everything points to a deep and unprecedented crisis within the army. A large number of commanders and soldiers have expressed to me feelings of frustration and despair, and many of them would prefer to leave the army rather than remain in this crumbling system.”
Epic failure
In his analysis of the current military situation, the retired general says that the army is “unable to achieve the declared war goals” of “eliminating Hamas and releasing the hostages,” arguing that continuing the fighting in this manner only leads to more failures and threatens a resounding failure in a multi-front war.
Brik holds the political and military leadership directly responsible, saying that “the government should have stuck to the agreement signed by Netanyahu in its second phase, and focused on rebuilding the army instead of pushing it to exhaustion in an endless battle.”
The current political and military leaders were not spared from criticism, and Brek accused them of being silent and submissive to the extremist political line.
“The issue I see mainly with senior commanders, who are demobilized from the army and join politics, is that their ideology and doctrine dictates their way, even if it doesn’t match the reality on the ground,” he says.
Breivik believes that “the failure to make any real progress against Hamas or Hezbollah is the product of “continuous budget cuts to the ground forces over the past 20 years” as well as deep-seated crises in “manpower, logistics, maintenance, and a flawed organizational culture in the military itself.
Messianism trumps realism
But the most important part of his article is his fierce attack on what he calls the “messianic doctrine” that dominates the minds of some political and military leaders. They live in the illusion that “God will give them victory” without any regard for military balances or realistic preparations, he said.
In an apparent reference to extremist ministers such as Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, he wrote: “They give the prime minister a tailwind to continue a war with no horizon, with the aim of achieving goals that the army cannot accomplish now, such as eliminating Hamas.”
He added that “senior commanders who retired from the army, donned skullcaps and went into politics or advised politicians, ignore the harsh reality and rely on their religious faith to justify continuing to fail.”
To bolster his arguments, Breivik invokes historical events from the Jewish heritage, most notably the destruction of the First and Second Temples according to Jewish accounts, as well as the Holocaust and the Bar Kokhba rebellion, for which he said Jews paid a heavy price of 600,000 deaths and 2,000 years of exile “for adopting a messianic ideology similar to what we see today.”
Serious consequences
According to the retired general, the insistence on continuing the war – despite the military’s inability to resolve it militarily – harms all aspects of life in Israel: “The kidnappers’ situation deteriorates, more soldiers are injured, Israel enters an unprecedented crisis with the world, the army continues to disintegrate from within, and the Home front of social chaos and collapses in education, health and the economy.”
“This is a delusional government that treats its survival in power as more important than the security of the state, and it is leading Israel into the abyss at an insane speed,” he continued in a desperate tone.
“Those running the government now live in a religious delusion that has nothing to do with military or security reality, and when they hit the solid wall of truth, they can only claim that God will help them, while the whole state is collapsing from within.”
He emphasizes that he has “thousands of testimonies, documents, reports and interviews that confirm everything he says.” He calls for stopping what he calls “messianic madness” and returning the army to its professional reality, away from religious speeches or ideological illusions.
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2025-06-03 14:57:00
