Knesset committee set to review Operation Protective Edge

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee was scheduled to hold a closed-door session on Tuesday ahead of its review of Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip.

Several of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee's subcommittees were also expected to meet on Tuesday, to discuss the issues that would be examined. Committee Chairman MK Zeev Elkin (Likud) has ruled that the various aspects of the operation would be reviewed by each of the subcommittees, according to their respective purview.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz and other senior defense officials briefed the various subcommittees throughout the 50-day military campaign. MKs serving on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee criticized the military, saying that several senior officers had repeatedly postponed appearing before the committee, which is tasked with overseeing the defense establishment's operations.

"The prime minister appeared before the committee at least once a week during the fighting, and met with us more than once as the operation was drawing to a close," a senior committee member told Israel Hayom.

Elkin noted Monday that the committee plans to pursue the review intensively, with aim of completing it by the end of 2014 and producing a report that would include conclusions relevant to all aspects of defense and security.

He noted that the committee strives to complete its report by Dec. 31 -- when the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is required to approve the budget appropriations for the Shin Bet security agency and the Mossad.

Elkin further stressed that the committee's inspection would not constitute an investigation, but rather a review meant to draw the necessary conclusions from the various incidents that took place during the operation.

According to Elkin's instructions, the Subcommittee for Intelligence will examine the information the IDF had on Hamas' terror tunnels; the Subcommittee for the State of Alert and Field Security will review claims that outdated military equipment was used during the ground incursion; the Subcommittee for Personnel in the Israel Defense Forces will analyze the issues relevant to reservists; and the Subcommittee for Foreign Affairs and Public Diplomacy will review Israel's diplomatic efforts in the international arena during the fighting.

The subcommittees' findings will then be reviewed by a special panel comprising the heads of the various subcommittees, who will finalize the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee's final report ahead of its presentation to the prime minister.

Meanwhile, the Knesset will hold a special session on Thursday, at the request of 25 MKs, to discuss Operation Protective Edge.

The plenum, which is currently in the midst of its summer recess, is scheduled to discuss the government's aid package to the Gaza vicinity communities and the exclusion of several southern cities, such as Ashkelon, Ashdod and Beersheba, from the plan; the government's five-year development plan for Sderot and the communities close to the southern border; the Finance Ministry's zero value-added tax bill; and the lateral cutbacks planned in the ministries' budgets.

The MKs who called the session plan to demand that the government put together an emergency rehabilitation program for the south.

"The residents of southern Israel have to know that they will be given the resources to back their plan to go home and resume their lives, and right now, the outline proposed by the Finance Ministry is insufficient," MK Stav Shaffir (Labor), who was one of the MKs to demand the special session, said.

"We cannot believe the spin promoted by the government over its aid package, when the cutbacks it approved to social services will affect the residents of the south directly," she said.

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