Retired General Yitzhak Brik told a defense conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday night that former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot worked to keep from key oversight bodies a 2018 report Brik wrote on the readiness of the ground forces for war. Brik said the 250-page report identified 15 major problems, and that if it had been taken seriously, “there would not have been Operation Iron Swords” and not “the biggest disaster that happened to the State of Israel.”
Brik argued that his warnings about poor discipline, shortages and lack of preparedness were dismissed for years, then proved correct in the October 7 attack and the war that followed. He said current Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi told him eight months before the war that he had read the report and ordered staff work to begin, but “the war broke out and we ran headfirst into the wall.”
He also accused Eisenkot of damaging the army’s logistics by pushing outsourcing to civilian firms. Brik said thousands of professional noncommissioned officers were discharged or fired, leaving no one to maintain equipment. He questioned who would repair a tank in Lebanon or deliver ammunition in combat, given that civilian companies cannot enter enemy territory. He added that promising young people left the army because they saw no career future, creating severe manpower gaps and cutting more than 200,000 combat and logistics personnel.
Brik criticized the army’s “Tzayad” system, saying it cost 30 billion shekels and is installed in every headquarters, tank and armored personnel carrier, but was left with outdated data because there were not enough career personnel to update imagery and targets every three months. He said this helped explain many command and control failures in the war. He also attacked the recent purchase of two fighter squadrons, which he said will arrive in 10 years and cost 24 billion shekels. In his view, that money could have bought more than one million drones, built a missile force, a laser system, improved air defense, or expanded the ground forces. Brik warned that without a better allocation of funds between land, air and sea, Israel will not be able to defend itself in the next war.
