Israel should have chosen a different strategy against Iran's nuclear program during Operation Roaring Lion, former defense minister Yoav Gallant said in an interview with 103FM on Monday.
“We should have gone and brought the enriched uranium by force in a military operation during the campaign. That would have uprooted the nuclear program from Iran,” he said.
“The ability of the US Army together with the Israeli army existed, and that was something that should have been done. It is dangerous and could come at a price, but it is a risk that must be taken for the security of the State of Israel.”
According to Gallant, Israel has entered a precarious situation and must not focus on unattainable goals or miss new strategic opportunities.
“If instead you put the effort into a fantasy plan to change the regime in ways that have no chance, you are wasting the only bullet you have in the magazine,” he said. “You are endangering soldiers and bringing the State of Israel into a reality in which missiles are being fired at it, all in order to achieve a strategic goal. If you did not achieve it, you did nothing.”
Gallant: Israel failed to turn military success into strategic action
Gallant also argued that Israel had failed to turn its military achievements into political gain, saying the country had not been able to translate its military successes into strategic action.
“In Israel's case, there is only one goal for which you need to go to war against Iran, to stop the nuclear program. That did not happen. The fantasy goal of changing the regime from the air and through all kinds of questionable forces did not happen.”
According to Gallant, responsibility for the situation lies with the political leadership, namely its head, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“If the political echelon, meaning the prime minister, approves certain objectives for the army and the army fully meets them, the fact that you have no strategic achievement means you approved the wrong objectives. To boast about the achievements of the Air Force is not the prime minister's role. His role is to bring about a political achievement.”
Israeli deterrence against Iranian missiles is 'weak,' Gallant says
Gallant described what he said was a serious erosion of Israeli deterrence, the acceptance of aggressive fire, the endangerment of civilians, and a loss of control over the scope of the response.
“We have reached a situation in which we are absorbing dribbles of missile fire of 400 kilos that can kill dozens of civilians, and we are responding with a weak reaction. That is impossible. We were in a situation that was agreed during my time, after we destroyed the missile array, killed Nasrallah, and eliminated the senior Radwan commanders and activated the pagers, in which we could strike anywhere in Lebanon. Hezbollah was on the ropes,” he said.
“From that situation, in which we could strike at any moment with full freedom of action, we reached a situation in which it is forbidden to strike,' he continued. 'We actually collapsed the equation concept. They attack, and we respond. When you strike the entire Iranian leadership on February 28, one minute later, you need to attack everything there is in Lebanon. If you do not do that, you are inviting war on two fronts.”