27/07/2007 The Israeli navy commander has resigned his post over failures during last summer's aggression against Lebanon, senior security officials say.
Admiral David Ben Ba'ashat submitted a letter of resignation on Thursday, terminating his tenure as an Israeli navy chief. Ba'ashat resignation comes in the wake of severe criticism of navy failures during the aggression, which Israel calls the second Lebanon war. Ba'ashat is just the latest high ranking Israeli to step down after the summer's war, in which Hezbollah fired almost 4,000 rockets at northern Israeli targets despite a full-scale invasion of Israeli ground, sea and air forces.
During the summer's war, 'Israel' failed to achieve its stated aim of freeing two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah resistance fighters. The Lebanese national resistance movement also killed 117 Israeli occupation soldiers, dealing a crushing blow to the Israeli military's myth of invincibility.
Israeli Defence minister Amir Peretz, the outgoing army chief of staff during the war, Dan Halutz, and an area military commander resigned earlier.
The outgoing commander of the naval commando sent a harsh letter to Ba'ashat several months after the end of the war, in which he expressed his dissatisfaction with the conduct of the navy's top echelon during last summer's invasion. Ba'ashat served as the commander of the Israeli navy for three years.
The war also cost the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert most of his public support, and he faces pressure to step down. An Israeli inquiry's preliminary report on April 30 heaped scathing criticism on all three senior officials but directed its sharpest barbs at Olmert, blaming him for hasty decisions and failure to set out attainable objectives. The navy's main failure during the war was a Hezbollah missile attack on a navy missile boat that killed four sailors.
It emerged that since Israel did not believe Hezbollah had weapons to attack its ships and the navy did not activate the on-board anti-missile system.
The inquiry commission is expected to present its final report by early next year, and the incident with the missile boat is likely to be considered, with harsh conclusions about the navy command.
The security officials said Ben Ba'ashat would stay on until a new commander is ready to replace him, probably by October.