Today's war between Israel and Hamas is a remarkable case study in how leaders in democracies learn. In a nutshell, it shows that leaders only learn when we, the people, force them.
As Israel battles Hamas in Gaza, all Israelis – and first and foremost our leaders – are thinking about the war with Hizbullah in the summer of 2006. That war, which was widely recognized as a military failure, forced then-IDF chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz and then-defense minister Amir Peretz from office.
The public's refusal to forgive the IDF's operational failures in Lebanon also forced Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to finally resign from office last summer. While it is true that the proximate cause of Olmert's resignation were the criminal probes being conducted against him, had Olmert not lost the public's support and trust after the 2006 war, gifted politician that he is, he probably would have weathered the corruption scandals.
With the ghost of Second Lebanon War hanging over them, both Defense Minister Ehud Barak and IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi know full well that if they fail now, their heads will roll like their predecessors' did. And with this sure knowledge guiding them, they prepared meticulously for this campaign.
From intelligence, to media relations, from logistics, to command and control, operational readiness, reserve forces mobilization and doctrinal clarity, they have clearly departed from the 2006 model of incompetence and arrogance. For the past two weeks, Barak and Ashkenazi have led the IDF on a course that – while more conservative and slow than most would like – is clearly better considered than the war that Halutz, Peretz and Olmert commanded two and a half years ago. And for this the country should respect them.
UNFORTUNATELY, THE public is not as well served by its government when it comes to the diplomatic endgame for this war. And here, too, the war in Lebanon explains the difference. The IDF's failure to defeat Hizbullah was self-evident. Hizbullah, after all, continued to shoot rockets at Israel until the moment the cease-fire went into force. The public could see for itself that those responsible for the IDF's failure had to go.
But while the public could see that the IDF had failed it, they were easily misled about the government's diplomatic performance. With the help of the media, which opposed early elections that would unseat the Left, the government presented UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which set the conditions of the cease-fire with Hizbullah, as a diplomatic triumph. Resolution 1701's architect, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, was celebrated as a genius who brought Israel its only real success in the war.
Unfortunately, this characterization of 1701 was completely false. It was a massive failure for Israel. And it wasn't a case of Israel being railroaded by the Security Council into accepting a resolution against its will. Livni initiated and pushed for the adoption of 1701.
The resolution favors Hizbullah over Israel. The expanded UNIFIL force, which Israel insisted be deployed along the border, has shielded Hizbullah from Israel for the past two and a half years. Under the watchful eye of UNIFIL's European commanders, Hizbullah has tripled its missile arsenal, reasserted control over south Lebanon and taken over the Lebanese government.
UNIFIL's boundless willingness to shield Hizbullah was exposed most recently on Thursday morning. After Hizbullah's Palestinian underlings attacked northern Israel with Katyusha rockets, UNIFIL commanders called for all sides to exercise "maximum restraint."
The absurdity of the directive, after one side launched an unprovoked attack on the other, showed how horrible Resolution 1701 truly is for Israel. By advocating and then applauding this resolution, Israel authorized UNIFIL to act as the arbiter of its own right to defend itself.
The public developed an inkling of the dimensions of Israel's diplomatic failure in the Second Lebanon War last summer. After Olmert formally resigned, Barak realized that Livni was his chief political rival in their quests to lead the Left. To weaken her, Barak began explaining why 1701 is a total bust. Whereas the media had ignored similar charges from the Right for two years, Barak couldn't be ignored.
But even as Barak's criticisms began chipping away at Livni's reputation as Mrs. Competent, they never were enough to force her to either acknowledge or pay a price for her incompetence. Indeed, in spite of her unmasking, the media firmly supported Livni in her bid to win the Kadima leadership primary in September and continues to support her in her bid to succeed Olmert as prime minister.
In this context, it is not at all surprising that while the government and the IDF go to great lengths to distinguish the military campaign in Gaza from the campaign in Lebanon, until a few days ago, the government's clearly stated diplomatic aim was to achieve the same sort of cease-fire with Hamas – replete with a Gaza-based international peacekeeping force – that it achieved in Lebanon with Hizbullah.
Interestingly, today it is not personal experience but rather political rivalry that is opening up the possibility that Israel won't reenact Lebanon's diplomatic failure in Gaza.
Today, Livni and Barak both see their conduct of this war as a means of shoring up their political standing against one another ahead of the February 10 elections. Their rivalry has led them to advocate contradictory goals for the diplomatic campaign.
After spending the last two and a half years presenting 1701 as a triumph, Livni has suddenly disavowed its central pillars. Today she opposes "reaching an agreement with a terrorist organization."
Similarly, she argues that the deployment of international forces along the border is antithetical to the national interest.
Barak has conducted a similar about-face. After castigating 1701 as a "failure," Barak now seeks to reenact it in Gaza. He supports international monitors along the border with Egypt. And he has no problem reaching an accord with Hamas.
The media have made much of the disparity between the disciplined military campaign and the confused diplomatic campaign. But they have not mentioned the cause of this disparity. Again, the IDF is performing competently today because its commanders remember what happened to their predecessors. The government is incompetently handling the cease-fire negotiations because its members are certain that there will be no political price to pay for their failure.
ONE OF the troubling aspects shared by both the IDF campaign and the diplomatic offensive is that both ignore the principal cause of the war. As a consequence, Israel has ruled out the possibility of actually winning a true victory in its current fight with Hamas. Here, too, our leaders ignore the true cause of the war because they know that they will pay no price for doing so.
Israel is not fighting Hamas today because it agreed to a six-month cease-fire with the terrorist regime in Gaza last June. And it is not fighting today because Hamas decided that it wants control over Gaza's international borders.
Israel is fighting a war with Hamas today because Israel withdrew from Gaza three and a half years ago. If Israel had not withdrawn its military forces from Gaza and forcibly expelled 8,000 Israeli citizens from their homes and farms in September 2005, it would not be fighting this war today. If Israel had not withdrawn, if it had retained its forces in Gaza and retained its communities – on whose ruins the IDF now fights – in Gaza, Hamas would probably never have taken over. And even if Hamas had taken over, it would never have been able to threaten a million Israelis with missiles and rockets and mortars.
When then-prime minister Ariel Sharon and his lackeys Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni began advocating the withdrawal plan
in 2003, they promised that by expelling Gaza's Jews and leaving their ruined villages to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah, Israel would advance the cause of peace. They promised that no one would hold us responsible for the welfare of Gaza's population anymore. We could simply disengage. And if we were ever attacked from Gaza after we left, the entire world would rally to our side. No one would oppose our right to defend ourselves after we rendered Gaza Judenrein.
The many who opposed this withdrawal scheme warned that leaving Gaza would accomplish nothing that Sharon, Olmert and Livni promised. The Palestinians would become more radical, not more moderate, after seeing Israel destroy its own towns and farms. They warned that Hamas would take over, since by expelling the Jews and leaving, Israel would show that it was collapsing. And why bother negotiating with a nation that was disintegrating?
Not only would the world continue to hold us responsible for supplying Gaza with food, electricity, medical care and employment opportunities, opponents of withdrawal warned that the international community would also oppose all future steps Israel took to defend itself against Gazan aggression even more strenuously. After all, by vacating Gaza, Israel was telling the world that as far as we were concerned, we had no right to be there.
And in the time that has passed since Israel "disengaged" from Gaza, the withdrawal's opponents have been proven right, and its supporters have been proven wrong on every single issue. And yet, unlike the public's outcry after the Second Lebanon War, there has been no public call for an accounting by Olmert, Livni or any of the withdrawal's supporters. No one has paid a political price for getting this wrong. With the IDF now forced to reconquer the ruins of Netzarim to defend Gedera, Ashdod and Beersheba, there has been no public demand for a commission of inquiry into the decision-making processes that led the Sharon-Olmert-Livni government to withdraw from Gaza. Indeed, Olmert, Livni and their colleagues have been promoted for their championing of Israel's single greatest strategic error since 1993.
TODAY THE IDF owes its operational competence to the public's humiliation and sacking of Halutz, Peretz and Olmert. On the other hand, Israel's diplomatic incompetence, and our leadership's continued refusal to accept that Sharon was right when he said, "As goes Netzarim so goes Tel Aviv," is rendering a true victory over Hamas impossible.
If we are ever to get on the right path in Gaza, as well as in Judea and Samaria and beyond, our first order of business as the public must be to force the politicians who brought us to this point to pay a price at the ballot box for their blind and dangerous incompetence. It is only by humiliating them in elections that we can be sure that their successors will be too frightened to repeat their mistakes.
Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.
‘If Israel had not withdrawn its military forces from Gaza and forcibly expelled 8,000 Israeli citizens from their homes and farms in September 2005, it would not be fighting this war today.’
You made it simple for the prostitutes for peace at all cost to understand in one sentence.
A reality that the delusional parties of Israel do not want to deal with because the Road Map 2 state solution is all they have in their basket.
They have no other vision or thought because they have alllowed others to lead them.
You didn’t mention the Road Map but this is the agenda which Israel has religiously and singlemindedly followed for the peace we see exploding around Israel and Gaza today and yet there is no outcry from anyone in Israel that the plans of the international community ,Quartet to carve up ISRAEL for their Palestinian state is finished,dead.
How is it that israel’s only vision is a failed 2 state solution which will never work ?
Why so much trust in failed friends and their failed agenda ?
The,Quartet US,EU,UN now all turn their knives slowly in Israel’s back and yet no Israeli leader talks about canceling the Road Map and returning to Gaza,Netzarim,Gush Katif to rebuild because they are fearful of everyone’s opinion in the world except God’s.
Thats your problem Israel,fear of man and a lack of the fear of God.
Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
Proverbs 29:18
I am not certain that a humiliating defeat at the balot box would be a strong enough message for the clowns in Israeli government. Public executions with stiff fines for their family members might make them act responsibly.
The current government should not agree to a truce until the Islamist entity occupying Gaza unconditionally surrenders. There is no substitute for total victory. Israel cannot afford to negotiate with Islamists who want to destroy them. Next month, Israeli voters have an opportunity to change the direction of where the country is headed. Hopefully, Likud will succeed the Kadima-Labor government. It’s time to allow former Prime Minister Netanyahu another chance to lead the government because he is a student of history, and an effective communicator.
“Israel is fighting a war with Hamas today because Israel withdrew from Gaza three and a half years ago. If Israel had not withdrawn its military forces from Gaza and forcibly expelled 8,000 Israeli citizens from their homes and farms in September 2005, it would not be fighting this war today.”
That hits the nail right on the head.
What is ironic is President Bush made a speech in Jerusalem back in May. In that speech he warned about the dangers of engaging in the false delusion of appeasement policies. When his own Administration has constantly pressured Israel to do that very thing. Engage in the false delusion of “Roadmap” appeasement. These people are in such willful ignorant denial. That very month that President Bush made that speech in Jerusalem, Abbas Zaki, the official Palestinian Authority representative in Lebanon, gave an interview to NBN-TV in which he reaffirmed the Fatah PLO’s commitment to the “Phased Plan.”
Besides the surrender of integrity and rightful ownership of Gaza by Israel, Olmert, Sharon, Livni have given ammunition to the Clowns of the USA, including the Peanut Farmer Jimmy Carter who has accepted more than $40 million from the Saudi’s and UAE and bemoans the destroying the ‘defensive’ tunnels near Sinai, and the idiot commentator Buchanan calls the defense of Israel a ‘Blitzkrieg’ and it has created a ‘concentration camp’ of Gaza. Of course there’s the Vatican priest who started the ‘concentration camp’ cry as if they have a clue. Never mind that Pope Alexander VI started murdering at age 13 (but that was before he was infallible) and Pope Adrien IV issued a Papal Bull giving all of Ireland to England’s Henry II (or at least he’d get a share of the booty). But finally, it’s been the children sexually abused by priests that are bringing the Catholic church into some sort of humility (or should).
But I digress. I hope that there is room for all the not just anti-semitic hatemongers to suffer, but their Enabling Idiots… the Popes, the Buchanans, the Condi Rices, the Kennedys, the Professor Donald Hooks (actually a Captain in US Intelligence Corps) be exposed to public ridicule.
Maybe a deck of Cards for all the Enabling Idiots would be a good idea.
Well this is serious when B. Hussein Obama is now reportedly going to engage Hamas diplomatically with ‘lower ranked intelligence’ officers. Sounds like an idea of lower intelligence. But then, he has that $750 million or so debt to work off, on the backs of whom?
Stay strong, safe and brave
Caroline,” God bless you”, you are right on. I once told you that if you were any better, there would be two of you. Precisely what is needed, one of you to continue to exposing the weakness of the government and the enemy of Israel, while the other you should be part of the government leading this Nation.
You’re a brilliant young lady and Israel should be proud to have you looking after her.
Compared to you, the little I know about Israel and the Middle East could slip through the eye of a needle.
One thing I do know or at least believe is that it was a definite mistake to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. This should be a clue to dismiss any idea of giving up the Golan Heights.
I also believe that none of the characters, the governments of Iran, Syria, Egypt including the puppet terrorist organizations (to name a few) Hamas and Hezbullah cannot now or ever be trusted. Their aim is to destroy the Jewish Nation of Israel and like a leopard, their stripes will not disappear.
Since the establishment of this Jewish State none of those mentioned showed any signs they could be trusted.
Solution, Israel has complete control of all of Israel period. Any Arab group that cannot accept this, pack your bags and move elsewhere. There is certainly plenty of open space to dwell in the Arab world. Besides if Egypt is so concerned for the Palestinians and Hamas, why not have them provide the Welcome Wagon.
It’s about time the World accepts this fact and tells the Arabs to put an end to the constant terrorizing of this Nation.
Amen.
Israel is alone and must defend itself. It needs a government dedicated to defense, not dreams. It has the duty to defend life and oppose those who love death rather than life. Rather than political maneuvering, Israel needs clear-eyed realism and steadfastness in its leadership. Defense first, Israel will prevail. February 10 is crucial.
How much of the electorate is left of center?
How much of the electorate tends left?
How much of the electorate thinks the best way to advance the “peace process” is to “engage” representative entities of the Palestinians?
How much of the electorate actually still believes in any “peace process?”
Caroline’s attempt to brand certain political leaders fails because really she needs to turn her guns on a not inconsiderable portion of the Israeli electorate.
It isn’t just Israeli leadership that has made mistakes.
It’s been the Israeli people themselves.
It hasn’t just been their leadership that has bought into certain fantastical notions about a peace that is just around the corner.
It’s been the people themselves.
So sure, set up a Winograd commission to find out what the military did wrong.
But what’s the point in setting up a commission to investigate a political leadership that is simply reflecting an idiocy that the electorate itself bought into.
Sure, Olmert is a piece of work.
And his lingering in office, his machinations, his manipulations of a TREMENDOUSLY flawed political system, all of that is simply pathetic.
But Israelis have put up with it, haven’t they?
Israelis put him in office.
Israelis placed Arafat in power, rescued him from obscurity in North Africa, feted him, flattered him, allowed him to slaughter opponents.
This wasn’t just the leadership.
It was a populace that bought into all of it for the purposes of “peace,” sweet and dear peace.
As if they were entitled to peace.
As if they were entitled to some accord with jihadists; as if they were really going to ameliorate the bloody passions rampant and triumphant throughout the entirety of mohammadenism.
Dream on.
Wasn’t gonna’ happen.
I like FRAN’s point, Israel needs a government dedicated to defense, not dreams.
In announcing the “Disengagement Plan” in December 2003, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the withdrawal was to increase security of residents of Israel, relieve pressure on the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and reduce friction between Israelis and Palestinians. Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, claims that the withdrawal is the result of violent Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation.
What is the withdrawal plan?
Starting Aug. 15, tens of thousands of Israeli troops will oversee the evacuation of the settlers from 21 different communities in Gaza and four smaller settlements in the West Bank. They will assist settlers with moving their belongings as well. Some Palestinian security forces will also participate. On Aug. 17, settlers who have not voluntarily left will be forcibly removed and may lose personal property, according to IDF commanders. Israeli soldiers will then demolish settlers’ homes.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/10/AR2005081000713.html
————–
So what did Israel get from this painful sacrifice for peace with the jihad crazy moslems of Gaza ?
What dd Israel get from obediently following orders from their ‘friends’ in Washington ? What will Israel get if it follows the same failed agenda in Judea,Samaria and Jerusalem ?
No more restraint no more sacrifice ,no more land for roockets ,terrorize the Islamiic terrorists day and night ,give them what they intend for Israel before they import any more weapons from Iran into Gaza. The suffering of the Gaza population who rejected moderate(?) Fatah stand with the Hamas terrorists and suffer for their grave error. Hopefully this may lead to Palestinian mother not sending their children to jihad school but instead looking to support their families instead of the UN and a host other assorted NGO’s.
Give Hamas hell so that they will always remember that they will pay a greater price by attacking Israel.No worthless ceasefire with pathological liars who have no intention of living in peace with non-Moslams.
Restore the deterrence with your enemies which was lost by your retreat from Gaza and your appeasment to these replacement Nazi’s of Hamas.
Well said,Dan..ask Caroline why her Bibi never unleashed an attack like this on Gaza!I’m starting to like Ehud and Tzipi
It was in the (UK) Guardian yesterday that the misguided Obama will initiate talks with Hamas once he’s President.
Israel, time to make sure there’s nobody left in Gaza for him to talk to… finish the job NOW.
Ignore the UN, EU, and American left… I guess they’ve never listened to what Iranian proxy Hamas says, nor read their charter, which is sworn to the “destruction of Israel” and the establishment of a “world Islamic empire” (THAT sounds like fun, I can’t wait).
Take out all those rocket launchers and stack-up these terrorist scum like firewood, Israel…those with moral clarity and common sense back you. If the Hamas medieval maniacs wish to be “martyred”, the IDF stands ready to oblige… and remember- “cease fire” is just Arabic for “don’t shoot, I’m re-loading”.
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/2008/12/telegram-for-iran-and-team-obama.html
“The game is rigged. At the highest levels of power in the U.S. and even by some in power in Israel, the game is rigged,” he emphasized.
The next obvious question in this interview was, of course, “how is it rigged?” followed by ”how are you in a position to know?”
This official responded by stating that he has spent the last two decades serving in “an unfortunate position where intelligence and politics meet and often collide.” Now, merely days away from retirement, he stated that he is looking forward to leaving his position after conducting over 20 years of intelligence work “that has been molded and massaged to advance the agendas of a select few.”
He continued: “When an intelligence work product that has been thoroughly and properly vetted is submitted to those in Washington, and I see a completely different and entirely inaccurate product intentionally submitted and aired in the media, only to be told ‘that is the way it must be,’ then I know it’s time for me to leave.”
“It is obvious to me that most Americans don’t understand or don’t care what is actually happening in the Middle East relative to Israel. People don’t understand history, or have been subjected to revisionist history based on lies and more lies. Add to that a media that fails to provide an accurate assessment of what is taking place in Israel, in Gaza, and you end up with a very bad situation for Israel,” stated this source. He added that the disinformation coming and going to and from Washington is getting worse, as is the media bias against Israel.
http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/20081231DJH
Israel has learned the some of the lessons of its disaster in Lebanon. Israel is fighting the war in Gaza more forcefully, it is not issuing any of those awful cringing apologies for the inevitable civilian deaths(an unavoidable part of war)and to the amazement of most it has ignored the cries of the fictitious “international community” for a ceasefire.
Unfortunately Israel has not made a commitment to victory, which in this context can only mean the unconditional surrender or elimination of Hamas. Israel has also refused to force the Palestinians in Gaza to face the full impact of what the initiation of war against against a peaceful nation means. The Palestinians have no right to complain about the death and destruction that they are now experiencing. In fact it is morally wrong and unjust for Israel to support in any way a population that desires their extinction.
As in 2006, I have to admit that I was initially impressed by what seemed to me Israel’s clear-headed realization that it’s interests were antithetical to an obviously hostile UN. Once again, with talk returning to how long of a “diplomatic window” and we now have to quickly finish up and accept whatever resolution we can get, I am feeling doubly stupid. The one bright bright side (if there is one) is that with another diplomatic disaster looming, Israeli voters such as myself will at least now be going to the polls in February without any illusions about Olmert, Livni, or Barak. This is clearly another conflict in which an illegal organization (now Hamas instead of Hezbollah) will achieve it’s primary political goal of legitimacy. Israel will achieved nothing of lasting effect.
In response to David Curtis Kimball.
By the way, we all agree that though out history every religion had its share of bad characters. In fact Christ gave us an example when one of the selected twelve apostles, Judas betrayed Him. We can be blessed with the vocation, but we are given a free will to choose right or wrong.
Likewise no nation is without its bad characters.
What I find wrong with your assertions and that of Marcel Cousineau (who rants and raves pointing fingers at everyone in addition to reciting proverbs) is most Americans and including Catholics and other Christians do support Israel and are concerned about the terrorist attack against her.
What you both should be doing is spending your energy to convince the 80%+ Jews in the U.S. who are liberal and are most influential to support Israel.
Just this past week on the Bill O’Rilley, Dennis Miller segment, Bill couldn’t understand why a large percentage of American Jews are liberal and when Israel is attached the far left in this country support the other side. Dennis suggested (and I am sure Caroline Glick would agree) was that American Jews have become more and more disengaged from Israel. (Bill O’Reilly-Miller segment 1/7 on FOXNEWS on line).
It’s time for the 80% to stand up and be heard. Come on guys, work on it.
I agree with Ron Grandinetti’s points 100%. Israelis need to engage American-Jewish leaders much more forcefully than they have been. Unfortunately, most of today’s American-Jewish leaders do not measure up to their predecessors, just like most of today’s Israeli leaders. With the exception of a few, most American-Jewish leaders simply parrot the Israeli Left’s positions, and cannot admit that they were wrong to support the 1993 Oslo Accords and subsequent Israeli “peace” negotiations with the PLO.
Furthermore, no one can expect American-Jewish leaders or the U.S. government to be stronger Zionists than the Israeli government. Since 1993 (with the exception of Netanyahu’s term as prime minister from 1996-1999), the Israeli government and establishment have abandoned Zionism. If Israel itself does not believe in its cause, how are American-Jewish leaders (who traditionally took their cues on Israel from Israeli leaders) supposed to make a difference?
Caroline,
I’m a big fan of yours. You do a great job of keeping us informed.
Sorry to be a bit cynical about all this but I suspect that when this is all over that we’ll go back to the same old thing.
Give the Palestines a few months to re-group and they’ll be firing rockets into Israel as fast as Iran can supply them.
I hope Israel understands that the US and EU are NOT reliable allies. You’re all alone in fighting these guys but that’s no reason not to fight them.
Mazel Tov!
Caroline: We need to force people to listen to our enemy. I don’t think Olmert or Livni, or Joe Biden or Condi have uttered as equally absurdly dark humor. If g-d is really a comedian playing before an audience who’s afraid to laugh, as Voltaire once remarked (or so I’m told by Sasha Cohen … not), then certainly we can celebrate with a cheap glass wine, some stale bread our victory.
Egyptian Cleric Safwat Higazi Responds to MEMRI: “Yes, I Am An Antisemite”; If Not for the Arab Rulers, “We Would Devour [The Jews] With Our Teeth”; “We Are Your Enemies… Until The Day Jesus… Descends, Fighting You And Calling To Join Islam” http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD219009
Our enemies actually want to eat us. We need to present this to the face of their defenders. If they cannot laugh at this nonsense to release their anxiety for the support they have showed these ridiculous evils, then they should be evaluated in a mental facility, and stripped of any authority.
Thorazine has been effective in calming someone’s addiction to supporting such self-destructive distortions of reality, religion and just the minimum of civility. I’m not sure there is any hope for the cleric Higazi quoted before … the Thorazine is for the enabling idiot authorities, once they agree to resign. I would even help pay the copay; certainly they have the best health insurance.
But because this cleric and the likes of Akminajab(sp) are serious, and place all their power and wealth at destroying humanity, their justice should be swift and silencing to prevent others from hearing and then to others mentioning such violent, barbaric, and hideous world views. We all know they are actively engaged in financing and coercing others along with any nearby Enabling Idiots, e.g. Ms. Huffffington’s quip “the duly elected Hamas”, as if that would relieve the argument that they could posssssibly be terrorists. Not at all terror to grab a child and bring him/her along with you to your machine gun nest, that’s what they were elected to do, of courssssse.
I know B. Netanyahu is one great leader, who needs all the support and courage of his convictions to do the right thing. I hope he can smile … he brings a smile to all those who know eliminating evil is the greatest gift anyone can give to another, because you can smile anytime you want.
Thank you for allowing so many others to smile. I hope you, too can smile … try… imagining Jesus descending, really ticked off that he got crucified for just knocking over a few money changers’ booths, looking for his Muslim buddies who really had some good Jewish flesh picked out to barbacue, and then together at last, like Mel Brooks at the campfire singing hatefully from the Quaran, or watching Rev. Wright’ sermons on DVD from the US of kkk on their CNN satillite phone.
If not that … then total victory over HAMAS … imagine, pray for that day when so many people who deserve and who would love to smile, will, especially in your blessed Israel.
Stay safe, strong and brave …
Asymmetrical Warfare’s Perdition Effects & Israeli –Hamas Conflict
Far too many take a single page from the several decades long Israeli – Arab Palestinian conflict , and use it as a measure of comprehension . From a single page, they formulate their paradigms, devise solutions and then when they fail, they walk away in utter bewilderment.
One must take into account the understructure, moreover its historical roots. Mid- East Terrorism asymmetrical warfare is well –organized, practiced , and has an deadly variegation corrosiveness to a society. . It has perplexing erratic militant engagements. This is a siege, of an multiphasic mutilation, or simply put death by a thousand cuts.
At this time Hamas has held hostage, some one million Israelis with its rocket forces. A lethal game of Hamas -Russian roulette, by firing some 6,000 rockets into Israeli communities. Israeli families have only from 17- to 30 seconds, for a Father to wake his family and get them to shelter, a school to gather their children, people to find cover. True there has not been extensive damage , with only minimal loss of Israeli lives. But this is only a one page distortion. The damage, the destruction to Israeli communities far exceeds conventional wisdom’s interpretation and comprehension.
To begin with, Hamas, won a majority of seats in the January 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council elections, is an Islamic extremist terror organization that calls for the eradication of Israel through acts of violence, no less an Islamic genocide of Jewish People everywhere. This is legitimized through a radical interpretation of Islamic theology. Hamas is the Arabic acronym for Harakat Al-Muqawama Al- Islamiya fi Filistin, or the Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine. Its goal is to replace Israel with a militant Palestinian Islamic state. Hamas is a creation of the Palestinian branch of the extremist Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Hamas was designated as a terrorist organization on January 23, 1995, by then President Bill Clinton in Executive Order 12947.Following the 1996 passage of the Antiterrorism Act, the U.S. State Department designated Hamas as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. After the September 11 attacks, Hamas was added to the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Global Terrorist organizations on November 2, 2001. On December 22, 2003, the European Union designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.
It was Hamas along with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad which embraced Ayatollah Khomeini’s Cult, of the Islamic Homicidal- Suicide Bomber , which has become a global pandemic. Both Iran and Arab Palestinian terrorists organizations embrace a Jewish holocaust across the face of the earth. Ayatollah Khomeini called the Hamas & the PIJ the fruit of his tree. Arab Palestinians are Sunni, Iran is Shiite. It was Hamas along with PIJ which introduced this into the Israeli – Arab Palestinian conflict, in 1993. The late Yasser Arafat adopted this asymmetrical warfare siege for his Sept-Oct 2000- October 2004 infamous Second Intifada, “uprising”. From 1993 through April 2004, 46 percent of all suicide bombings were carried out by Hamas, 29 percent by PIJ (Palestine Islamic Jihad).
Israel is not much bigger than a bread box 8,000 sq miles (Israel could fit into Florida 8 times) 263 miles long – North to South Width: between 9 and 71 miles wide (East to West) Israel Area – comparative: slightly smaller than New Jersey. It’s population, just a handful of a few million.
However why is Israel the only Nation on the face of the earth which must provide each and every man, woman, and child a protective gasmask, ? And why is Israel the only Nation in the span of last few decades which has seen literally several billion dollars spent on its destruction ?
The current Israeli – Hamas conflict is but a single page, of the wars with Israel. From Iran, Syria, Sudan to the late Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, from Arab Palestinians terrorists entities to Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and more. All these and more are at war with Israel.
The entire structure which composes the Israeli Nation has seen damage in one way or another. Israel is a Nation under siege. What other nation on the face of the earth, which must have security check points throughout its entirety,? Check points for just entering into a grocery store, restaurants, and other.
The manifestation of Asymmetrical Warfare’s Perdition Effects, are not easily understood nor recognized by the average person. Terrorist entities embed themselves within the fabric of its host people. Its goal is to have human shields, but their real evil intent is to have civilian causalities.
The international world media and Nation’s populace can readily see before their eyes civilian causalities, identify with such causalities. In addition terrorism asymmetrical news propaganda spreads throughout the world at the speed of the World Wide Web. Provoking International condemnation, even hatred for the nation attempting to remove or confront such terrorism. The terrorists objectives is to cause paralysis, confusion, prevent further military actions upon itself. But it is also a means to force a cease-fire, which is only beneficial to itself, allows time to regroup, rearm and attack again. Does this sound familiar ? Never ending cycles of conflicts with Israel and Arab Palestinians? America has experienced this in Iraq, but for some strange reason ether by choice or sheer ignorance Washington and Pentagon Officials fail to factor this in, with any Israeli – Arab Palestinian cease –fires.
What is really perceived , the presentation of bloodied twisted mangled , dead and injured children, or the bloodied twisted mangled souls of Israeli children suffering from the effects of having Asymmetrical Warfare’s Perdition Effects of Hamas -Russian roulette, by firing some 6,000 rockets into Israeli communities ? Let alone the continued domestic terrorist attacks by Israeli Arab Palestinians . ???
Iran has provided Hamas with Asymmetrical warfare training, has provided hundreds of millions of dollars , as did the late Saddam Hussein, going as far as paying some 30,000 dollars to each Arab Palestinian family who son attacked Israel as a homicidal- suicide bomber. Saddam even brought Arab Palestinians to Iraq for terrorist training. The late PLO Leader Yasser Arafat supported Saddam invasion into Kuwait, provided Arab Palestinians ground forces. At the end of Operation Desert Storm, Kuwait Government kicked out some 400,000 Arab Palestinians living there. True not all fought with Saddam Hussein, not all Arab Palestinians living in Gaza fights Israel or supports Hamas, but many does so. But they did vote Hamas into power, Hamas has paraded on the International News front its Hitler Youth camps and military training. Its women homicidal-bomber groups , and women military groups.
So how do you separate Gaza civilian causalities from those who support Hamas, and those who do not ? The problem is you cannot.
In late 1997, UN Inspectors discovered Saddam Hussein VX Nerve Agent ( the most toxic nerve agent in the history of Humankind) stocks and uncovered that VX had been loaded into SCUD missile warheads, that in fact Saddam Hussein had enough chemical stocks to make enough VX nerve agent to kill every man, woman and child on the face of the earth. Saddam kicked out all of the UN Inspectors.
In resent declassified military records, it was revealed that Saddam fully intended to , and attempted to launch chemical warfare attacks, during 1991 Desert Storm. However the declassed records does not state Saddam’s intended targets was Israel , allied troops or both. Again I ask you,
“ Why is Israel the only Nation on the face of the earth which must provide each and every man, woman, and child a protective gasmask ?”
Many have forgotten that Saddam fired a series of SCUD missiles into Israel, during the 1991 Gulf War.
The Asymmetrical Warfare’s Perdition Effects on Israel are costing Israel billions in dollars , for example the cost expenditure to Israel in building walls around Israel, with circulating check points, to prevent terrorism infiltration, and suicide bomber attacks has cost several billion in dollars. Not even figuring in the cost of maintaining a large stand military. Israeli’s government continually struggles with ever inflating price costs of Asymmetrical Warfare’s Perdition Effects, and has had to chose between, social programs and security concerns. Israeli employment strikes for pay from schools to hospitals are ever increasing yearly occurrences.
As Hamas unleashed a fury of thousands of rockets into Israeli communities who spoke out against these onslaughts, Washington and International Officials, UN were curiously tight lipped on the matter. As long as a cease fire is signed who cares, if the fighting goes on, as long as Israel does not respond.
A Cease- Fire, Israel Ceases Arab Palestinians – Fire. This cycle of Asymmetrical Warfare’s Perdition strategy, one Arab Palestinian faction will sign a peace accord. Then other Arab Palestinian terrorist entities, start a low intensity attacks ever widening , ever deadly. When Israel is forced to respond, Arab Palestinian Leadership rebukes Israel, they claim Israel is destroying or has destroyed the peace process. The war erupts, does this cycle sound vaguely familiar ?
Mahmoud Zahar, Hamas’s second-ranking political leader, has responded to the fighting as follows, “… “by killing our children you legitimize us killing your children; by bombing our mosque you legitimize us bombing your synagogue; by bombing our hospitals you legitimize to us bombing your hospital…We will remain on the right path until we liberate all of Palestine. “ Of course the Hamas has been attacking Israel’s civilian populace for some time now. Does this rhetoric sound familiar ?
Even PLO Leader Mahmoud Abbas never once condemned these Hamas missiles attacks as destroying or even detrimental to the Israeli- Arab Palestinian peace process. However he was quick to condemn any and all of Israel’s Protective Defensive Operations.
There is s full International spectrum, a complex structure from State actors like Iran, Syria, formally Saddam’s Iraq, and their proxies Arab Palestinians terrorist organizations to Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and many more, warring with the tiny Nation of Israel. It is an ugly face of Islamic Fascism.
Israel is a Nation under siege, the intent is another Jewish Holocaust, and it is no less than genocidal Asymmetrical War. But Washington & Pentagon Officials disregard this war as a war with America. Iran, Hamas, Al Qaeda and many other like them scream, Israel is lesser of the ‘Great Satan, “. The Great Satan is America. Israel hold ‘s the strategic and tactical high ground in winning the war with terrorism, of Islamic Fascism. This storm which seeks to remake the over in their image, and is willing to butcher anyone and anything that stands in their way.
UN Security Council Resolution 1860 on the Gaza Conflict as a troubling development. It fails to mention the release of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit who has been in Hamas captivity since 2006. The word “rocket” does not even appear, only general references to condemning “violence and hostilities directed against civilians.” Reading the resolution, one would not be aware that Israel has been under constant rocket attacks since 2001, the real background to the current conflict.
• In March 2008, a Hamas official confirmed for the first time that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been training Hamas men in Tehran for more than two years and is “currently honing the skills of 150 fighters.” He elaborated by saying that Hamas had been sending fighters to Iran for field tactics and weapons technology since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005.So far, 150 members of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, have passed through training in Tehran “where they study for between 45 days and six months under the command the IRGC.” Another 650 Hamas fighters have been trained in Syria under instructors who learnt their techniques in Iran. In March 2008, 62 Hamas fighters were actually in Syria
Israel will be coerced into signing another useless cease-fire . Hamas will emerge as the victor, consolidate its hold on Gaza. Even if UN Forces or other are sent into Gaza to Police any cease fire, they will be about as effective as UNIFIL has been in Lebanon in preventing the Hezbollah from rearming, and buildup for another war with Israel.
As long as Washington Officials and the International Community refuses to perceive that Israel is not just in a conflict with Hamas, or grasp even , recognize Asymmetrical Warfare’s Strategy, tactics its corrosive perdition effects, the Israeli Arab Palestinian conflict will ever widen become even more destructive.
Again, far too many take a single page from the several decades long Israeli – Arab Palestinian conflict , and use it as a measure of comprehension . From a single page, they formulate their paradigms, devise solutions and then when they fail, they walk away in utter bewilderment
For America it has a more forbearing, consequences , not only will any of their Israeli –Arab Palestinian peace initiatives fail, but Pentagon Military Officials will be dumfounded as their current and future military strategies will fall short in Afghanistan , and elsewhere.
Giving up Gaza was a very big mistake. I think even those who had supported giving up Gaza would now agree that such actions will never work. Something can be learned from this mistake though. If Israel does the opposite of what it did in Gaza, a more viable solution will occur. That is instead of giving up Gaza and the West Bank, take the land back. Push the Palestinians out. Where they go is up to them, Jordan might take most of them, but they have to be pushed out regardless. Do this gradually so they will have time to find somewhere else to live, and do it without violence if possible. Israeli citizens should move back in and build new homes as the land is gradually vacated. Use military force or threaten such force against any country(s) attempting to interfere, even against the US! It is an internal issue because that land belongs to Israel and it must do this to survive. No country can allow an enemy to occupy part of its territory especially when that enemy is constantly attacking the host country. Expect but ignore any hateful criticism no matter where it comes from. I think you will see something similar to this from Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu when he regains executive power. However it unfolds he will put an end to this conflict with the Palestinians once and for all and Israel will find itself safer than it has been in a very long time. The Israeli children will be able to sleep at night!