The IDF got a new chief on Wednesday - Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, the 19th man to have the honor of leading the Israel Defense Forces.
By all accounts, Ashkenazi is extremely popular with IDF field commanders. May the Almighty grant him wisdom and strength to go along with that popularity.
He is going to need it.
Make no mistake about it, as things currently stand, Israel has lost its war with Hizb’allah. Despite Defense Minister Amir Peretz’s ludicrous announcement Sunday that Israel has won the war, not one single stated military objective has been met.
Two Israeli soldiers are still in captivity, Hizb’allah is demonstrating once again today that it is still very capable of pounding northern Israel, and IDF troops and armor are being taken out in worrying numbers by a well-armed and highly-trained enemy.
Some in Israel will point to the terms of the UN-imposed ceasefire, which calls for Hizb’allah to withdraw north of the Litani River, as an achievement. But who is naive enough to believe the terrorists will really withdraw? Or that a sympathetic French-led force and the Shi’ite-dominated Lebanese army will actually enforce that stipulation?
No. Israel has lost. And Hizb’allah knows it. More concerning, the wider Muslim world knows it.
For decades Israel’s deterrence was based on the Arabs’ belief that the IDF was simply too powerful to be beaten. But this conflict, which saw a small band of terrorists use easily-obtained anti-tank missiles to inflict crushing losses on a mighty military machine, has ended that myth.
Israel, so long as it fights by the world’s rules, can be beat. That lesson will not be lost on the Arabs and Iranians the next time they decide to pick a fight. And it won’t be long before they do.
This video shows Hizb’allah firing multiple rockets at northern Israel from the southern Lebanon village of Qana, as well as storing its arms in buildings and houses in that community. When Israel hits these villages with intense airstrikes, it is not out of aggression, but self defense. Israel, like every other nation, has the right to return fire on the origin of fire against its own civilians.
If and when Lebanese civilians lose their lives as a result of this series of events, their blood is first and foremost on Hizb’allah’s hands, for obvious reasons. After Hizb’allah, the civilians themselves are most responsible for their own deaths for not leaving the area despite being warned by Israel for days prior to the airstrikes to do so.
Israel may regret these civilian deaths, but it bears no responsibility whatsoever for collateral damage incurred during defense strikes against the origin of fire on its sovereign territory.
Despite strong speeches by its leaders and what appeared to be an initial recognition of the necessity for outright victory against Hizb’allah, Israel now appears unable to do what is needed to actually achieve that goal.
Ha’aretz correspondent Ze’ev Schiff warns that if the IDF and political echelon do not get on the same page soon and implement a strong and unified battle plan, the conflict with Hizb’allah will turn into a war of attrition, bringing the Galilee region to its knees.
IDF Northern Command says it has a plan for victory, but it seems the Olmert government, which insists on approving every small step in this war before it is taken, has delayed implementation of the winning strategy as it looks over its shoulder to see what the international community is saying.
Cabinet meetings are turning into endless debates with no decisions taken the longer this fight drags on, putting victory further out of reach every day.
It doesn’t matter how many Hizb’allah men Israel kills or how many of the terrorists’ rockets are destroyed. Hizb’allah can recruit more willing fighters, and Iran and Syria will gladly supply more arms. All Hizb’allah has to do to win this fight is survive and demonstrate an ability to continue threatening northern Israel when all is said and done.
The burden of proof, therefore, is on Israel. Will Israel deal Hizb’allah and its sponsors such a harsh blow that despite the ability to recruit more men and obtain more weapons the group would never dare to use them again? Or will ultimate victory elude Jerusalem, leading to an irreversible tarnishing of the IDF’s image has the region’s mightiest military force and the deterrence that perception so long provided against Muslim aggression?
Israel has lost a fair number of its finest young soldiers during the current war in Lebanon. How they died certainly varies from individual to individual, but recent accounts of how Major Roi Klein died while leading his troops against Hizb’allah in Bint Jbeil is characteristic of other stories I have heard about the conduct of seasoned Israeli commanders who possess a deep sense of what they are fighting for.
According to personal accounts of some of the soldiers present in the fierce battle on July 26, Klein not only displayed tremendous self-sacrifice by falling on a grenade lobbed at his platoon, but made sure the last thing he did in this life was honor God by reciting the Sh’ma - “Here Oh Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is One.”
The spirit of Israel’s great biblical warriors appears to be alive and well in this nation.
Israel’s investigation (without PA cooperation) into last Friday’s Gaza beach explosion that killed at least 7 Arab civilians shows the IDF was in no way involved.The most likely culprit is a land mine planted by “Palestinian” terrorists to thwart landings by Israeli naval commandos.
Needless to say, the evidence Israel is presenting is not being reported by the international media with the same enthusiasm and gusto as were the original “Palestinian” claims of an Israeli-perpetrated massacre.
At any rate, the simple fact remains that even if the IDF were responsible for the deadly explosion, the blood of the deceased is ultimately on the hands of “Palestinian” terrorists, who leave Israel with little choice but to respond militarily to their incessant rocket fire.
