Posted on 08/21/24
| News Source: Arutz-7
Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, the outgoing head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, accepted responsibility for the intelligence failures of October 7 in his farewell address Wednesday evening.
"We did not live up to our sacred oath," Haliva said in his tearful address. "I did everything to be a loyal soldier of the IDF and the State of Israel. I was given the greatest privilege to serve the State of Israel and its citizens. On that Shabbat, we did not fulfill the most important mission which we are tasked with, providing a warning of war.”
"The ultimate responsibility for the failure of the Intelligence Directorate rests on my shoulders," he said, noting that he decided to step down in light of the failures of October 7. “The responsibility and setting a personal example is a core value of the IDF, and in leadership in general. Taking responsibility is not words, it must be actions. My decision to end my role and resign from the IDF is the norm in which I was educated."
"I want to take advantage of this opportunity, and while saying goodbye to the IDF to ask for your forgiveness. In my name and in the name of the entire Military Intelligence Directorate, I ask for your forgiveness," Haliva said.
After Haliva concluded, his successor as the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, spoke.
"I am asking for your trust and your commitment. The same commitment and determination that you have shown since the outbreak of the war, and which have resulted in many achievements. We are in the midst of a just war, a hard and long war, that may expand further, and we will continue our efforts to achieve all of its goals. We must dedicate our efforts to returning 109 hostages in the Gaza Strip. It is a national mission, an ethical mission of utmost importance, and an urgent one,” Binder said.
“We must continue to increase our readiness for the campaign expanding in the north, and build a good intelligence picture for defense and attack, and for more distant arenas, as this directorate has proved recently,” he said.