No need to clone the General Staff

At the eleventh hour, just as the coalition deal between Likud and Yisrael Beytenu was about to be inked, or so it seemed, Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett issued a new demand, conditioning Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Lieberman's appointment as defense minister with implementing measures that would keep Diplomatic-Security Cabinet ministers apprised of operational details necessary for their decision-making process.

The context and timing are not a coincidence. Bennett hopes the state comptroller's report that is due Monday will prove his claim that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and other Military Intelligence experts were wrong to assume Hamas would not use its tunnels for terrorism, and that he was right in his demand to destroy the underground grid.

Mind you, during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, Bennett -- unlike Lieberman -- never suggested seizing control of the Gaza Strip.

But even if Bennett was right, Israel's desire to maintain the peace and quiet achieved in the south following 2012's Operation Pillar of Defense justified deferring targeting Hamas' tunnels.

For the sake of argument, however, let's assume Bennett is right -- it is still a far cry from expanding the cabinet's toolkit, because there is always the risk that it will become a second General Staff, which could potentially have very negative results.

Were that the case, the ministers would name their own military secretary, and then what? Begin questioning officers as to their intelligence sources, or the logistics of the various corps? Where would it end? Moreover, it could prompt offices to "lobby" for their interests with ministers who have nothing to do with military affairs.

Israel has enough controls in place when it comes to its defense establishment, including the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the National Security Council. If the latter has somehow been weakened following the departure of its heads Uzi Arad, Yaakov Amidror and Yossi Cohen, then an individual of their caliber should be named to it, but the National Security Council should not be weakened further by forming a competing body.

The Diplomatic-Security Cabinet should focus on strategy and matters of peace and war, not on tactical issues, such as which tunnel to destroy or what weapon to use against the enemy. The ministers have enough to do in their own purview, without weighing in on military issues. This would be the moment to reprise an old slogan from a new perspective -- "let the IDF win."

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