Israel and the Bombs

By Tim McGirk

According to a top Israeli intelligence official, the Pentagon in 2002 offered to supply Israel with bunker-buster bombs capable of punching deep into an enemy's underground defenses, but Israel's air force chief, Lieut. General Dan Halutz, rejected Washington's offer, noting that his country had its own superb weaponry, thank you very much. Four years later, Halutz is now Israel's chief of staff in charge of this summer's air, sea and land strikes against Lebanon. Early on in the monthlong conflict, Israeli intelligence determined that most of Hizballah's rockets were being fired from launchers in 38 bunkers burrowed six yards into hilltops across southern Lebanon. The Israelis know exactly where these launchers are, but Halutz's vaunted Israeli-made bombs failed to destroy them. "If we'd had the bunker busters in the first few days," laments the senior intelligence officer, "we'd be in an entirely different situation today against Hizballah."

With such rueful hindsight, Israel last month put in an urgent request for precision-guided, 5,000-lb. bunker busters, and the Bush Administration complied, the intelligence source told TIME. And with the New York Times last week reporting that Israel has asked the U.S. to speed up delivery of short-range rockets armed with cluster bombs, Israel appears to be massively gearing up just as the U.N. Security Council--at long last--approved a cease-fire agreement.

The council voted unanimously late last week for a 15,000-strong international force to help the same number of Lebanese troops keep a 12-mile buffer zone free of "any armed personnel," whether Hizballah or Israeli. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said he would work over the weekend to determine the exact date and time Israeli troops will move out as the Lebanese move in.

Once the cease-fire begins, both sides will surely claim victory. Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah will declare himself a new champion of the Arab world for having terrorized 1.5 million Israelis with his blindly flung rockets. The Israelis can claim that they replaced the Hizballah militants along the border with Lebanese troops and a tough international force.

But the Israeli army may have lost its aura of invincibility along the way. And for that, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his top generals could pay dearly. The once decisive Prime Minister looked dithery last week after twice postponing a major ground offensive. With Israeli tanks revving their engines and more than 20,000 troops advancing into Lebanon, Olmert had good reason to be cautious about a long-lasting ground invasion. By Saturday, the war had cost 131 Israeli lives, 91 of them soldiers. And a major thrust 14 miles north to the Litani river--as envisioned by Halutz and the other generals--could drag on for another six weeks. Hence Olmert's decision last week to wait for a U.N. resolution, despite his generals' urging to roll the tanks.

As chief of staff, Halutz, 58, may end up taking most of the blame. Dismissing that initial offer of U.S. bunker busters is only one example of his famous hubris. On July 17, five days into the Lebanese conflict, Halutz told Knesset members, "With all the technology we have, there is no reason to start sending ground troops in." A month later, he was pushing to send thousands of soldiers as the only way to defeat Hizballah.

A no-nonsense fighter pilot who had been a favorite of--and, some insiders say, a possible successor to--former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Halutz at first impressed Israelis with his aviator glasses and Top Gun swagger. Once asked how it felt to drop a bomb on people, he replied, "I feel a light bump to the plane as a result of the bomb's release. A second later it's gone, and that's all. That is what I feel." Such myopia may have worked for him in the cockpit, but may be a liability in politics.

With reporting by Aaron J. Klein/ Jerusalem