August 2006 – Author Shlomi Harif

Confusing Left Wing and Competence

shlomi on August 17, 2006

I. Am. Boggled.

An Israeli, a politician, the Defence Minister, saying he didn’t know about the Hizbollah missile threat? How stupid is that? It’s not as if terrorists hadn’t fired Katyusha rockets into Israel before. Or paraded them around Lebanon, complete with marching martyrs. Or shown off their longer-range weapons. Even mustered out reservists like me knew about them. What did he expect? That Hizbollah would launch batalions of regular soldiers over the border?

Israel’s relationship with Lebanon goes back over eighty years. It’s a relationship that Israel has continually had to redefine and rejudge.

For Peretz to say he had no idea that the Hizbollah rocket threat was on the map is so absurd as to call into basic question not only his competence to hold office, but to question whether the Kadima party, decapitated with Sharon’s (all but) demise, should be allowed to continue.

I would rather a right wing party of rationalists than the current leadership of visionless, impotent functionaries. And this from an ardent left-winger!

Who Signs a UN Ceasefire?

shlomi on August 12, 2006

Israel and Lebanon seem to agree fighting should be replaced by a ceasefire. One that does not meet any of Israel’s rolling stated goals: unconditional release of kidnapped soldiers and the destruction of Hizballah and it’s remaining stores of rockets.

Here’s the next scenario: Lebanon and Israeli sign the ceasefire, the Security Council is happy, and Hizballah only has to sulk, not sign, and then use longer-range missiles from the Shouf Mountains near Syria whenever it wants. After all, it is not a signatory country, and, with the last three plus weeks, Israel is now in a mode of being pummeled daily by many dozens of rockets. What’s one or two a week? They can rebuild their presence in Beirut and anywhere the UN forces aren’t. Heck, they can launch from an orchard within the UN areas with impunity: there is no launch infrastructure for a Katyusha rocket to be spotted until after the rocket is launched.

Israel will complain to the the UN forces, which will lodge complaints with Lebanon which will, do… nothing. And Israel’s ability to go after the terrorists will be effectively eliminated, as the UN will have the mandate to secure the area. However badly.

We’re at the go/no-go point: Israeli forces are sweeping towards the Litani River, something we’ve gotten too much practice doing in the last thirty years. The best Israel can hope for? The destruction of the majority of Hizballah’s rockets and killing some of its leadership. And, as you can see from the video below, more civilians will be caught as Hizballah cynically uses its own population for cover and hopes their deaths will boost recruitment in the coming years:

Ultimately this is not a winnable war if fought by Israel alone.

Syria and Iran will re-equip.
Israel has germinated the next crop of suicide bombers and Hizballah fighters.
Hamas has learned a valuable tool and will probably start using rockets within the West Bank within the year, to a greater effect than Hizballah, given their ability to damage Israel’s heartland.

Lastly, the arrests in London this week show that terrorists of every religious flavor will recruit from and hide within civilian populations, then strike from within. And let the innocent, be they Lebanese or London muslims, bear the brunt of the response.

Limp-Wristed Leadership

shlomi on August 11, 2006

I’d previously posted on what I thought Israel’s military game plan would be. Strike hard, decisively, and continue to drill down until it hurt Hizbollah enough to cough up its captives and retreat.

What I didn’t account for was the Bush Effect, and at this stage, I can’t support the continued Israeli military operation.

When sub-Bush took aim at Iraq, I was all for the war. Not because I thought the President was right, but because taking out Iraq, I reasoned, would save Israel the trouble of doing it next time he decided to transfer his aggression on one country instead onto Israel. I imagined he’d learned from ubber-Bush, who did a half-baked job on an enemy that respected only full measures of action. After the heated rhetoric, the 20,000-pound bombs, and America’s overwhelming might, I expected “shock and awe” to be deafening.

It was more like Babe Ruth needing to hit a grand slam but instead dribbling a bunt that barely made the pitcher’s mound.

Like little Bush’s attempt at war-making, Ehud Olmert has lived down to his roots as a lawyer and political hack. I know the code words that could have been spoken to trigger a callup, a swift and deep attack, and a truly devestating hit. It would have killed more Lebanese civilians, but Israel would have been saved thousands of missile strikes.

Instead, this ‘hit and wait,’ ‘hit and wait’ policy provided the enemy with ammunition for public relations and their allies and non-supporters of the Jewish state with the time and space to push Israel back on the political battlefield.

Now we are left with the impression of thousands of milling reservists, the reality of over one hundred buried soldiers, and my former home in Northern Israel a wreckage-wracked and economically devestated area, from which it will take years to recover.

Prime Minister Olmert, you failed in the kind of mission one gets but one chance to execute: safeguarding the security of the Israeli people and land. Like Bush, you have forfeited the credentials a state leader is given in stewardship, not in perpetuity.: the stewardship to manage the future of the country. The casualties of the next few years, when Hizballah lobs missiles over separation forces to land in Israel, are on your head. And you have given the radical right ammunition, ammunition to which they had no rights to acquire, to be the next weapons of mass political destruction.

Shame on you.

Two Views, One Picture

shlomi on August 7, 2006

My spouse and I have passionate views, and, like many areas, we’re not on the same page on the future of this latest Lebanese war. (Of course, it’s not against the Lebanese, it’s against whomever’s last taken over the country, but that’s another story.)

Richard Bartholomew has yet again captured the real essence of the war. With every place I’ve ever lived in targeted by rockets, and seeing the damage up close on both sides, it’s clear that, whatever the terrorist or military goals on respective sides, it’s the innocent civilians on both sides of the ridge that are doing the brunt of the suffering.

Israel, unlike its enemy, does not have the luxury of blanket bombings of civilians and this complicates and extends Israel’s attack against Hizballah and, as a result, the casualties inflicted on civilians used as shields by terrorists and their rockets.