| Dan Halutz (דן חלוץ) |
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|---|---|
| Born | August 7, 1948 Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Allegiance | Israel |
| Service/branch | Israeli Air Force |
| Years of service | 1966–2006 |
| Commands held | Israeli Air Force Israel Defense Forces |
' (Hebrew: דן חלוץ) (born August 7, 1948) is an Israeli Air Force Lt. General and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and commander of the Israeli Air Force. Halutz was appointed as Chief of Staff on June 1, 2005. On January 17, 2007 he announced his resignation.[1] He has a degree in economics. He was born to a Mizrahi Jewish family with origins in Iran and Iraq.[2] He is Chairman of the Etgarim special-needs charity.[3]
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Halutz joined the Israeli Air Force (IAF) in 1966 and graduated from combat flight school in 1968. In 1969, he joined the first F-4 Phantom squadron of the IAF. During the War of Attrition, Halutz carried out 40 operational flights.
After the war, he left the IDF in order to study, but returned to active duty when the Yom Kippur War started, in 1973. During the Yom Kippur War, Halutz carried out over 43 operational flights in which he shot down 3 enemy planes in dogfights.
In 1978, he left the IDF again and served as a reserve pilot for four years. He returned to active service in 1982, when he was also trained to pilot the new F-16 jet fighter. In 1984, he commanded a Phantom squadron. In 1986, he was appointed to head the IAI Lavi jet project. After the project was canceled due to American pressure, Halutz was appointed as commander of Hatzor airbase in 1991.
In 1993, he was promoted to Brigadier General and appointed as head of air group. In 1995, he was appointed as the head of air force headquarters.
In 1998, he was promoted to Major General and in 1999, he was appointed as the head of the Operations Wing in the IDF General Staff.
In 2000, Halutz was appointed commander of the Israeli Air Force. He led the IAF during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, during which he was recognized by experts and subordinates as an innovative and a charismatic leader. Halutz's main reforms in the Air Force were the tightening of cooperation with the ground forces and the Shin Bet, the massive employment of UAV drones, the upgrading of precision strike capabilities in helicopter gunships and jets and the sharp decrease of accidents and aerial failures. During Halutz's time, only a small number of accidents occurred, none of them lethal. Moreover, he held a record of a straight 2.5 years with a clean slate of no accidents at all. During his term, the IAF took part in several 'targeted killing' operations of Palestinian leaders.
In 2004, he was appointed as Deputy Chief of Staff.
On February 23, 2005, Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz announced that Halutz would be the next IDF Chief of Staff.
On June 1, 2005, Halutz was officially appointed the eighteenth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and was awarded the rank of Rav-Aluf (Lieutenant General). It is the second time in the history of the Israel Defense Forces that a former IAF commander became the head of the entire military. General Chaim Laskov was the first.
On January 17, 2007, Halutz resigned from office, following a critical report from former chief of Staff Dan Shomron. Halutz stated that he made the decision "based on deep-rooted values, those of strong ethics, loyalty to the organization and integrity."
"I served the army responsibly for over four decades, and this responsibility continued in the last few months. It is this responsibility that led me to announce my resignation."
Halutz holds a degree in economics from Tel Aviv University, and a Harvard Business School degree.[3]
As the Israeli Air Force Commander in Chief, Halutz implemented changes which earned him the appreciation and respect of his officers and pilots. During Halutz's term, Israel purchased F-15E and F-16 fighter jets, capable of strategic bombing in all weather conditions. Halutz also expanded the usage of UAV drones to various missions as an effective tool of scouting and reconnaissance.
Halutz also tightened the cooperation of the IAF with the IDF ground forces and the Shabak (the Israeli internal security service and counter-terror agency), enabling the IAF to arrange "targeted killings" of Palestinian militants within minutes after being provided intelligence from the Shabak.
The controversial targeted killings policy has become identified to a large degree with Halutz himself. Brig. Gen (res.) Iftach Spector, past commander of the Ramat David Airbase and the Tel Nof Airbase, accused Halutz of encouraging a culture within the IDF of compromising one's principles, citing among other things the targeted killings policy.[4]
On the night of July 23, 2002, an IAF warplane dropped a one-ton bomb on a Gaza apartment building where senior Hamas commander Salah Shahade was sleeping together with his wife and family.[5] The building was situated in a densely populated residential neighborhood. Besides Shehada and his wife and daughter, a dozen more civilians were killed, most of them children. Israel's prime minister Ariel Sharon called the operation a success in the war on terror, but political critics pointed out that it was carried out hours after Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin issued a statement offering an end to suicide bombing, and just as the Palestinian Authority was working out a deal with Hamas to end terror attacks. All these developments were undone by the bombing, and the terror wave resumed. There was at least one revenge attack directly related to the Shehade bombing – on July 31 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, killing 7 civilians including 2 Americans.
Human-rights organizations have criticized the attack, proclaiming that the intentional dropping of a one-ton bomb in the middle of the night on a dense civilian neighborhood is tantamount to a war crime. The Gush Shalom movement also threatened to turn the pilot over to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Halutz, who was abroad during the bombing itself but was still accountable as IAF commander, gave an interview to Haaretz, published on August 21, 2002. To his pilots he said:
When asked whether the operation is morally wrong because of the toll on some civilians, Halutz answered that the planning included moral consideration and that a mistake or an accident does not make it such.
When the reporter asked him about the feelings of a pilot and what he feels when he drops a bomb, Halutz answered:
In the same interview Halutz denounced the left-wing groups who attacked the pilots and called to have them tried for "treason":[6]
Halutz's harsh expression caused a public controversy, with anti-Occupation groups demanding his resignation but right-wingers and centrists backing him. Following Halutz's appointment to Deputy Chief of Staff, a group of prominent left-wing activists, together with the Yesh Gvul refusal group, filed a petition with the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice (BAGATZ) in order to prevent the appointment. The petitioners attached a cut and somewhat edited version of the interview.[7]
The judges ordered Halutz to write an essay, clarifying his stand in the issue. Halutz complied and submitted an essay saying:
In 2005, BAGATZ accepted Halutz's reply and rejected the petition.
Following Shaul Mofaz's announcement that Halutz would be the next IDF chief of staff, the Arab and Yachad MKs condemned the decision, while right-wing and centrist MKs blessed Halutz and condemned the left for its objection to Halutz. MK Gideon Sa'ar (Likud) said the Halutz appointment to chief of staff is a winning answer to the far left.
Talking about Hezbollah rocket fire on Israeli civilians, Halutz said on July 23, 2006:
"There will always be some terrorist to fire a missile. But I believe we'll be able to push them north and reduce the accuracy of their fire. The other side must reach the conclusion that the price it pays for continuing the [rocket] fire is intolerable."[8]
On July 24 it was reported that IDF Radio had broadcast details of orders issued by Halutz:
"Army chief of staff Dan Halutz has given the order to the air force to destroy 10 multi-storey buildings in the Haret Hreik ("Dahiya") district (of Beirut) in response to every rocket fired on Haifa," a senior air force officer told army radio on Monday [July 24].[9][10][11]
The report was condemned on July 24 by the Israeli group Association for Civil Rights in Israel who wrote to Israeli Defense Minister Peretz and Israeli Attorney General Menahem Mazuz to criticise the orders: "Striking civilians and civilian infrastructure and using intentional means of intimidation and terrorizing civilian populations is forbidden by international humanitarian law, and could be war crimes."[12] The group also condemned the "grave and illegal" attacks carried out on the Israeli civilian population by Hezbollah.[13]
On August 15, 2006, it was revealed that Halutz sold off his investment portfolio three hours after two Israeli soldiers were captured by Hezbollah during the Zar'it-Shtula incident, leading to the war. While this action on the part of the Chief of Staff is technically legal and is only restricted (through blind trusteeship) from cabinet members, the State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss has called to expand it to the Chief of Staff and to other senior officials. Several Knesset members called for Halutz to offer his resignation and some members of the General Staff Forum commented that his resignation appeared inevitable.[14]
On August 17, Halutz rejected resigning over the affair, adding that the motives behind its publication are "wicked and tendentious. I do not know who is behind this. I do not intend to be dragged to such levels, questioning my integrity. " Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, the head of the IDF, admitted selling about $28,000 worth of his stocks within three hours of Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers—the action that sparked the conflict. In a news conference in Tel Aviv, Halutz said the stock sale was unrelated to the outbreak of war and criticized the disclosure of his personal financial information.[15] On August 30, a Bank Leumi probe announced that the source of the leak did not come from its bank.[16]
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