The Cabinet’s extraordinary praise for the Israel Defense Force’s 48-hour sweep through southern Lebanon was tempered Sunday by misgivings over the Cabinet’s apparent lack of control over significant military operations.
It became clear over the weekend that Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin had briefed neither the Cabinet nor the Inner Cabinet, or even the prime minister or foreign minister, before he ordered the mission. The operation cost the IDF three dead and 17 wounded.
several ministers are asking for a clearer definition of the Cabinet’s role in approving military actions before they are launched. Premier Yitzhak Shamir promised a special Cabinet session would be devoted to the issue.
The constitutional questions involved have bedeviled Israeli governments ever since the 1956 Sinai campaign, which then Premier David Ben-Gurion initiated, in collusion with Britain and France, without reference to the full Cabinet.
Education Minister Yitzhak Navon, who is a deputy prime minister, led a group of Labor ministers questioning the defense minister’s obligations to the Cabinet.
Another Laborite, Energy Minister Moshe Shahal, has drafted legislation stipulating what sort of military operations must be cleared in advance.
SHAHAL OFFERS PROPOSAL
Shahal, a lawyer, would classify military actions in three categories: warlike action, requiring the prior approval of the entire Cabinet; sorties of brigade strength or larger, which would require the endorsement of the 10-member Ministerial Defense Committee, which is the same body as the Inner Cabinet; and smaller operations, which would require the defense minister to consult only with the prime minister in advance.
Shahal said his proposals are supported by Rabin, Police Minister Haim Barlev and Mordechai Gur, all Laborites who have served in the past as IDF chief of staff. Gur is a minister without portfolio in the Cabinet.
The Cabinet issued an official statement after its regular weekly meeting Sunday reporting that Shamir had “expressed the Cabinet’s esteem and congratulations for the IDF’s important and courageous action in Maidoun, which demonstrated its superlative fighting ability, devotion, daring and adherence to the mission.”
Maidoun village in southern Lebanon was the only stronghold where the IDF encountered serious resistance during its two-day foray, and the only place where it suffered casualties.
The village was strongly fortified by Hezbollah, the pro-Iranian Shiite extremist group whose name means “Party of God.” Its capture by the IDF was considered essential because of its position overlooking Upper Galilee.
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