[H]ow well has Israel's leadership performed? Disastrously.
Jerusalem's profound strategic incompetence continues and heightens the failed policies since 1993 that have eroded Israel's reputation, strategic advantage, and security. Four main reasons lead me to this negative conclusion.
First, the team in charge in Jerusalem created the Gaza problem. Its leader, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert immortally explained in 2005 the forthcoming unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza: "We [Israelis] are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies."
Olmert had a vital role in (1) initiating the Gaza withdrawal, which ended the Israel Defense Forces' close control of the territory, and (2) giving up Israeli control over the Gaza-Egypt border. This little noted decision, enabled Hamas to build tunnels to Egypt, smuggle in matériel, and launch missiles into Israel.
[Furthermore,] Olmert and his colleagues failed to respond to the barrage of rockets and mortar shells. From the Israeli withdrawal in 2005 until now, Hamas has launched over 6,500 missiles into Israel. Incredibly, Israelis endured nearly eight attacks a day for three years; why? A responsible government would have responded to the first rocket as a casus belli and immediately responded.
The waning days of the Bush administration offers a unique moment to take care of business. Why did Olmert squander this opportunity to confront the relatively trivial danger Hamas presents rather than the existential threat of Iran's nuclear program? This negligence has potentially dire repercussions.
[Jerusalem Post]
Jerusalem's profound strategic incompetence continues and heightens the failed policies since 1993 that have eroded Israel's reputation, strategic advantage, and security. Four main reasons lead me to this negative conclusion.
First, the team in charge in Jerusalem created the Gaza problem. Its leader, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert immortally explained in 2005 the forthcoming unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza: "We [Israelis] are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies."
Olmert had a vital role in (1) initiating the Gaza withdrawal, which ended the Israel Defense Forces' close control of the territory, and (2) giving up Israeli control over the Gaza-Egypt border. This little noted decision, enabled Hamas to build tunnels to Egypt, smuggle in matériel, and launch missiles into Israel.
[Furthermore,] Olmert and his colleagues failed to respond to the barrage of rockets and mortar shells. From the Israeli withdrawal in 2005 until now, Hamas has launched over 6,500 missiles into Israel. Incredibly, Israelis endured nearly eight attacks a day for three years; why? A responsible government would have responded to the first rocket as a casus belli and immediately responded.
The waning days of the Bush administration offers a unique moment to take care of business. Why did Olmert squander this opportunity to confront the relatively trivial danger Hamas presents rather than the existential threat of Iran's nuclear program? This negligence has potentially dire repercussions.
[Jerusalem Post]
2 comments:
Sometimes hindsight is 20/20. For Mr. Pipes, it seems, hindsight is no clearer than anything else. It is easy to say now that the Gaza handling was wrong, but leaving Gaza was not, if any attempt at peace was going to be made. Responding to the rocket fire during a "ceasefire" always comes down harder on Israel in international opinion. Its restraint then, is making its offensive possible now with mere lip service from others, even Egypt. Iran is another story. It may come to war someday, an international coalition against Iran, but that time has not arrived. For Israel to strike now means war, and that is why Bush showed uncharacteristic restraint, but more likely, cowardice and insecurity in the face of so many other errors, by denying Israel the ability to make an attack that might not have achieved its goals anyway. Things will get more complicated and possibly more bloody, but it will take more than Israel to stop what Iran is trying to become.
You are correct in that Bush seems to have declined to sell Israel equipment it needs to carry out a mission against Iran. Also, word has leaked out that Israel asked for permission to fly over Iraq...it was denied by Bush.
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