Israel’s many wars and mini-wars have several things in common. The same Muslim foe (though often wearing different masks), Israel’s unfortunate total reliance (at least for now) on the power of the IDF to win the day, and a deep national sense that even if to the rest of the world the battle appears to be nothing more than a border skirmish, much more is really at stake.

Another thing they all have in common is the inevitability that the United Nations, Europe and even the United States will at some point accuse Israel of employing “disproportionate force.”

The argument, however, seems to be bereft of all logic, especially coming from the US, where the doctrine of “overwhelming force” is the cornerstone of today’s military tactics.

At the Pentagon they understand that unless one side or the other is capable of employing force disproportionate to that of its enemy and actually does so, then there can be no victory. The status quo would be maintained in perpetuity, or at least until the Muslims’ were capable of launching a first strike that left Israel largely unable to respond.

The West today owes its freedom to the fact that no one was holding back America and Britain from employing “disproportionate force” against the Nazis and Imperial Japan during World War II. Likewise, it is in everyone’s best interest that Israel be permitted to truly defeat the forces of Islamic terror and tyranny surrounding it.

Reading through UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and Caroline Glick’s pointed analysis of it leaves little room for doubt that Israel did not obtain victory in this fight.

The shame of it is that victory could probably have been obtained quite easily. Or at least far more easily than in Israel’s previous wars. Continue reading »

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.

Kofi Annan and his buddies at the UN are daily fretting over the mounting humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, pointing to the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Israel’s military operations against Hizb’allah.

Meanwhile, the two million residents of Israel’s northern regions who have either been forced from their homes or into cramped bomb shelters by incessant Hizb’allah rocket fire are virtually forgotten. With the conflict dragging on longer than most had hoped, many can no longer afford to stay away, and find themselves forced to return north, full of fear and despair, putting themselves and their children in harm’s way.

Forgive me for playing the anti-Semitism card once again, but this smacks of precisely the attitude of the international community as Jews were being slaughtered in their millions by the Nazis during World War II. Then, too, the world did its best to ignore the Jewish humanitarian crisis until it had no choice but to acknowledge it due to the horrendous death toll.

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?

Much of the world is continuing to have trouble deciding if Islamic terrorism is a mere crime, or an act of war. This stems from the fact that while major terror groups usually have state sponsors, their actions are not carried out on behalf of any particular nation.

Even so, the real problem is the liberal humanistic mindset that now dominates international decision making. It insists on seeing the world according to national boundaries, when in fact the enemy is spiritual, transcending current borders. This has started to change in both Israel and the US, though both nations continue to resist the notion that the world is experiencing a clash of civilizations or religions. Continue reading »

Israel’s ability to deter Muslim terrorist aggression against its people is on the line in a big way in southern Lebanon. If Hizb’allah survives its fight with Israel, terrorists everywhere will get the message that they can hit the Jewish state hard without fear of suffering annihilation in response. They will understand that Israel will never be allowed to do to them what America is doing to Al Qaeda and its allies.

Eli Hertz summarizes the issue well:

“Unfortunately, Israel’s power of deterrent against ‘low signature’ guerrilla warfare that uses Palestinian civilians as shelter and terrorism as a political weapon has been diminished by a host of factors, external and internal: Israel’s isolation in the international arena (and apologists for Arab terrorism abroad and at home) are interpreted as an ‘insurance policy’ that Israel’s hands will be tied or partially tied in its response.

“In addition, despotic leaders’ misunderstand democratic debate and Israeli society’s genuine strengths and weaknesses and they misread limitations on the use of force stemming from Israel’s Jewish and democratic ethos. Well-intentioned policy decisions Israel has taken to defuse conflict and avoid friction have ‘boomeranged’ - perceived as cowering feeble-heartedness, undermining Israel’s power of deterrent.”

No one likes to see innocent civilians suffer, especially those who are held hostage by and oppose the actions of the terrorists in their midst. But if Israel does not put aside all other concerns and smash Hizb’allah now, this particular battle is just going to continue repeating itself, ultimately at the cost of far more civilian lives on both sides.

Ha’aretz military correspondent Ze’ev Schiff rightly points out that Israel has no choice but to win its fight with Hizb’allah, and must resist international pressure for a ceasefire that would result in any alternative outcome.

Hizb’allah at this point is simply fighting to survive. If it can come out of this mini war with even some of its fighting capability intact, it will be seen as having won a great victory by confronting Israel and then outlasting the Jewish state’s response.

This, Schiff warns, will create “strategic parity between Israel and Hizb’allah.”

In its early days, Israel paid dearly in four full-scale wars to establish a deterrence that has for decades held its foes in the wider Muslim world at bay. But if it now fails to actually defeat Hizb’allah, the perception of Israeli strength will be shattered, and other more powerful enemies will be greatly tempted to implement their “final solution” to the “Zionist problem.”

Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Beri Monday demonstrated precisely why Israel’s offensive against Hizb’allah must continue unabated for the time being. Continue reading »