Sunday, June 08, 2008

Will Israel blow it again?


Gaza Going Wrong -Elliot Chodoff

Israel['s] leadership is contemplating a “medium-size” military operation against the terrorists in Gaza, to be followed by a cease fire. [I]t will be the wrong operation, for the wrong objectives, and will result in a predictable failure.

Having decided to accept a cease fire with Hamas, the Israeli leadership needs to demonstrate that this decision was made out of strength, not weakness. So a “medium-size’ military operation will precede the truce, showing that we are not afraid to fight a few half-hearted battles. This “strategy” is strongly reminiscent of that of the failed war in Lebanon in 2006...

Of course, when the operation is concluded, and the IDF returns to its bases, Hamas will declare victory regardless of the kill ratios, since it will have survived the experience.

A simple fact seems to have eluded the Israeli leadership: when you actually win, you don’t have to convince the other side of the fact, and you don’t have to make excuses, either.

[T]he Israeli government is apparently incapable of making the difficult decision to do what it must to provide security for the thousands of citizens who have been suffering under sustained rocket attacks out of Gaza for the past seven years. What is required is a full-scale military ground operation, whose objective is to disrupt Hamas’ terrorism, kill many terrorists with as few IDF and noncombatant casualties as possible, and get the forces back, prepared to do it again if the message wasn’t understood.

This may not be the clean, neat kind of war that Western society prefers, but it is the only way to secure Southern Israel against an armed organization that is sworn to the destruction of the Jewish State.
[Mideast: On Target]

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