hebrew → English transcript

Most of them are generals, heads of the Shin Bet, heads of the Mossad, and heads of the establishment.

Everyone here was in cabinets and kitchen cabinets, part of the most sensitive decision-making.

Over a thousand years of security and political experience.

It gave us the duty to stand up and say what we have to say.

We will end in defeat.

This war started as a just war.

It was a defensive war.

But when we achieved all the military objectives,

when we achieved a brilliant military victory against all our enemies,

this war stopped being a just war.

And it is leading the State of Israel to the loss of its security and identity.

We are now far beyond the point

where we can no longer achieve a sufficient operational outcome.

Right now, we are mostly just losing.

We have buried those achievements.

I don't know of any army that has defeated a guerrilla force.

We are currently in a static situation in Gaza.

An army that isn't moving is an army that gets hit.

It doesn't matter how good the army is.

A war without a political objective leads to defeat.

Today, the war is a war of negation.

Operation Merkevot Gilul achieved almost nothing.

We paid a price with too many casualties and deaths.

Our achievements there are quite limited.

The international damages are severe.

And at the moment, we've made no progress on the issue of the hostages.

What the world sees today is our own creation.

We are hiding behind a lie that we created.

This lie is being sold to the Israeli public, and to my great regret.

The world has long since understood that this is not the real picture.

The army agrees with everything that's happening there.

I don't envy the Chief of Staff.

It's as if he's the only entity you can wake up and pin your hopes on.

There are situations, a black flag, you must stand firm and say, 'Up to here.'

The IDF, with its capabilities, is unable to realize a fantasy.

Of someone in the cabinet who believes it can be achieved.

Right now, we have a government that the messianics have pulled in a direction…

that is not rational.

It's a minority. The problem is that the minority controls the policy.

The direction the government is currently heading in is an extremely fanatical worldview.

While it was not elected to be an extremely fanatical government.

And it has taken us captive.

Does anyone imagine we can reach every terrorist,

every tunnel, and every weapon,

and simultaneously bring our hostages home?

I think that's impossible.

A fantasy.

It is now the job of the army chiefs

to come forward and lay everything on the table.

The heads of organizations need to have the courage

to stand before the Prime Minister and the Cabinet

and state things as truthfully as possible

about this war, about its futility.

It is their duty to say what they can and cannot do,

even if someone desperately wants them to.

The time has come to end this war.

An end to the war.

This war can be ended

with a withdrawal to the perimeter and a ceasefire.

Stop the war immediately.

Bring the hostages home.

And all in a single phase.

The return of all hostages in a single phase.

This war must end.

We need to bring the boys home as soon as possible.

Thank you very much.