The Generals Wage Another War

The guns on the battlefields had barely been silenced by the cease-fire when new fighting erupted--this time not between Arabs and Jews but among Israel's military leaders. The aura of Israeli invincibility was shattered by the early successes of the Egyptian and Syrian surprise attacks. Ever since, Israel's generals have been blaming each other not only for their army's lack of preparedness but also for tactical and strategic errors on the battlefield. Because many of Israel's military leaders are also important political figures, the war among the generals is one that could affect the posture Israel will take in future negotiations with the Arabs.

Arik's Complaint. The opening salvo in this war was fired by Major General Ariel ("Arik") Sharon, 45, who was called out of retirement to lead the successful Israeli thrust across the Suez Canal that helped trap Egypt's Third Army. In interviews with reporters from the New York Times and Los Angeles Times that were filed from Rome to skirt the tough Israeli censors, Sharon charged that his superiors were not prepared for the war. The General amplified his accusations in yet another in-- --terview with American University Professor Amos Perlmutter: "The Southern Command collapsed completely in the first two days," said Sharon. "Bar-Lev [Lieut. Gen. Haim Bar-Lev, the former chief of staff who was mobilized and given a major command in the Sinai's Southern Sector] did not perceive the time element. He believed that the Egyptian forces could be defeated by attrition.

"The real mismanagement, however, was not military but political. The argument was over who was going to cross the canal first and who would be chosen to do it, not how it should be done. I told them I am commander of 15,000 troops and I have no tune to screw you now because I have to screw the Egyptians. Now I have no tune to fight with you politically, but when the war is over you will all have to wear helmets."

What apparently prompted Sharon to speak out was a series of stories from Tel Aviv suggesting that the hero of the Suez crossing had himself disobeyed orders and erred by pushing westward to Cairo too quickly, rather than widening the bridgehead to the north and south. Sharon became convinced that he was being sabotaged by his superiors when Labor Union Secretary Yitzhak Ben-Aharon called the general "a nobody trying to build up a career on the war."

Ben-Aharon and the Labor Party have good reason to fear Sharon. Earlier this year he helped organize the right-whig Likud coalition, which, with 32 seats in the Knesset (parliament), is the most formidable opposition that the 56-seat Labor bloc has ever had. (Among other matters, Likud is opposed to Israel's giving up any of the territory it now occupies on the West Bank of the Jordan River.) Even before the Yom Kippur War, Sharon seemed sure to win a seat in the Knesset election that is now scheduled for Dec. 31. Because he has become the leading military hero of the war, he could emerge as one of the Knesset's most powerful figures.

Among the first to respond to Sharon's attack was Bar-Lev, currently Israel's Minister of Commerce and Industry. Bar-Lev denounced Sharon's statements to the press as a "grave and worthless deed. I don't think the army can afford to overlook something like this." Sharon has long been a critic of Bar-Lev and has ridiculed his pet strategy of constructing static fortifications along the east bank of the Suez Canal, which were quickly 6verrun by the Egyptians.

Court-Martial. The current army chief of staff, General David Elazar, also joined the fray, warning Sharon that victories of the Israeli army "should not be turned into personal ones, nor should mistakes and failures be blamed on others." At the suggestion of Moshe Dayan, whose friends have been leaking stories to the press exonerating Israel's wily Defense Minister of any blame for the army's unpreparedness, Elazar called on the Attorney General for advice. That led to speculation that Elazar might bring Sharon before a court-martial, as some Labor members of the Knesset have demanded.

Considering the importance of the military in Israel, it was no great surprise that the generals would be caught up in the nationwide soul-searching that followed the frustrating outcome of the Yom Kippur War. Many civilian commentators, though, were shocked by the bluntness of Sharon's criticism of his fellow generals; one columnist went so far as to compare it to General Douglas MacArthur's insubordinate attitude toward President Truman during the Korean War. Whether that charge is justified or not, Sharon's critique has stimulated the demand for an independent commission of inquiry into Israel's conduct of the war--to which the country's abrasive, talkative generals will certainly have plenty to say.

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