TEL AVIV — Israel's military has abandoned the hope of defeating
Palestinian insurgents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and is ill-prepared for any future conflicts with such nations as Iran and Syria an officer told a conference here.
"In the idea of low-intensity conflict, there is no concept of victory,"
Col. David Marciano, head of the weapons department in the military's Ground
Forces Command, said. "There perhaps could be a cessation of violence."
In an address to the annual Military Technologies conference and
exhibition on Monday, Marciano said the current war with the Palestinians
has set aside virtually every other military threat, Middle East Newsline reported. He said senior
commanders have spent little time planning for any future regional war,
which could include such adversaries as Iran and Syria.
"If you look at the military command, most of the time is spent on the
here and now rather than on preparing for a future war," Marciano said.
Marciano said the Ground Forces Command has been allocated 1.5 billion
shekels [$350 million] for low-intensity conflict in
2005. In 2003, the figure was 300 million shekels. At the same time, the
command reduced overall expenditures by 500 million shekels per year.
Marciano said the military command envisions an increase in the threat
from global terrorism as well as Iranian nuclear weapons. At the same time,
the command forecasts a weakening of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as
well as the Syrian military.
The Ground Forces Command's priorities have been headed by the
development and procurement of precision weapons, light platforms and
technology meant to increase survivability. Other priorities were said to
include autonomous platforms, information warfare, satellites, unmanned
aerial vehicles and non-lethal systems.
"The first question I ask is cost," Marciano said. "The second question
is whether it is cost effective? The third question is are there
alternatives [to a proposed system]."
Marciano said the Ground Forces Command plans to spend 4 billion
shekels, or $930 million, for the Digital Army Warfare program, meant to
link all army assets. He termed this the most important project for the
ground forces.
A major casualty of the insurgency war has been the level of combat
readiness, particularly that of munitions and other supplies required for
conventional war. Marciano said Israel has been unable to replace aging
weapons, a process that involves an increase in costs of up to five percent
per year above the rate of inflation.
"When will it [military supply system] collapse?" Marciano asked. "Only
during a war. Now the supply situation is dormant."
