By Ted Belman
Strange as it may seem, some people on the left want Israel to reconquer Gaza while many on the right like myself are not in favour of it. What motivates these people on the left is the prospect of turning Gaza over to Fatah once Hamas is defeated, so that a “peace” agreement can be concluded.
“It would be very hard to reach an agreement,” Peres said, “due to the Hamas-Fatah split.” This split is even preventing a shelf agreement. This thinking presupposes with Fatah in charge they would be more flexible but why would that be so.
Ami Isseroff adds his pessimism in an excellent review titled Gaza: how peace is lulled to eternal sleep. He argues that the lull ended the peace process.
For my part I see the existence of Hamas as ensuring that such a deal won’t be concluded and that makes me happy..
That is not to say that I think there should be a “lull”. Far from it. I strongly support increased pressure on Gaza and the assassination of its leaders until the rockets stop.
As for the “lull” itself it now appears it was just an excuse not to invade. It gives cover for passivity and perhaps results in reduced rocket firing. The fact that rocket fire and smuggling continues and Israel still maintains the “lull” suggests that Israel expected no tangible results of it save for it being an excuse not to invade.
Jonathan Spyer updates us on developments in Fortress Gaza. Hamas now has 20,000 men under arms and has increased the sophistication of its anti-tank missiles, IED’s and other weaponry. They are following the Hezbollah model of fighting. They believe that
- “Israel’s Achilles’ heel is its inability to absorb large numbers of military and civilian casualties. Hamas believes Israel’s will can be broken through attrition and a steady toll of unexpectedly high numbers of both military and civilian casualties.”
This is one of the reasons Israel lost in Lebanon and is the reason Israel is afraid, yes “afraid”, to invade even now before the build up reaches a peak. I am also against an invasion. But I am not against bombing the shit our of the place. The stronger Hamas gets the more likely Israel will destroy them from afar.
Israel attempted to do this to Hezbollah in the last war and it proved ineffective in stopping the rockets. What Israel should have done is focussed all their fire power south of the Litani where the rockets were coming from, until such time as it was safe to have a massive invasion.
The last thing Israel should do is to play into their hands by invading before a major bombing campaign. This is what I recommended in Bomb Gaza before invading.
Such a strategy would involve fewer soldiers and this is important given the possibility that Israel will have to do likewise with Hezbollah, simultaneously. Keep in mind that military doctrine holds that at least three times as many soldiers are needed for offense as for defense. Given the number of armed militants Hamas and Hezbollah have , Israel’s standing army is not big enough. So the bombing campaign would give Israel the time it needs to mobilize its reserves.
The battle plan must be based on winning decisively with the least number of our own casualties.
Israel doesn’t have the luxury to play games. This is war. And war is hell.
In the meantime Israel should follow a policy of making it more painful for Hamas than they are making it for Israel. We can wear them down. We can do it. We can beat them at their own game.
Only when we are playing defense can they wear us down. When we play offense we wear them down.
One caveat though. This is the war the left is trying to avoid.
tahadiyeh (lull) – To deceive into trustfulness: “that honeyed charm that he used so effectively to lull his victims” S.J. Perelman. (From The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language)
I’ve got news for you sunstart, there have ALWAYS been homosexuals in the armed forces, they just kept themselves quiet about it. I don’t know what your response has to do with Ted’s post about how Israel should fight hamas. It is just another manifestation of your anti-Clinton obsession. Stop fighting battles from the previous decade and worry about fighting obama and getting McCain elected.
Hamas has known all along just how far to push – not far enough for consolidated retaliation but just
enough to kill a few Jews, so as to forestall any real military action by the likes of Olmert & Co. It is
really diabolical, and has been quite effective from their point of view. I wonder what tact they would
have taken if Israel had a ballsy leader….
At any rate, I agree with you Ted, and I think it is time to remove the velvet glove from the
iron fist.
When Clinton ran against Bush in 1992, I knew I would not want to serve a military run by Bill Clinton, so I laid down my weapon and got out of the military based on a few HIGHER principles:
1. Muslims are dedicated to their false god and their false prophet; democrats are not dedicated to any god and bow before every altar – whatever earns the bank money.
2. In 1992, the American military had no UNITY or common foundation stone for FAITH to fight against infidel Muslims. Under a Bill Clinton society, gays and lesbians were being recruited into law enforcement, military, and high government positions and if it’s anything that cut the balls off our military heroes – it was that evil decision – “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” while the Iranians were executing homosexuals in their empire.
My point is that although Muslims followed a false god and a false prophet, they stayed true to their god and were willing to blow themselves up for their god. America and Israel had lost the sacrificial spirit of losing their lives for any cause under the Clintonian regime. After 9-11, the American spirit was restored and revived as we fought against the terrorists – however, today, our CHIEF UNITY lies in supporting TORAH LAW and without absolute support of Israel’s Torah Law, this war is destined to be lost. Americans and israelis must UNITE for the common cause and defense of the LAND and STATE OF ISRAEL, according to Torah definition – otherwise the world is doomed to unprecedented disaster – and that will be forever. The time of the devil’s militant faction of Hamas is short – it will be up to more leaders to destroy all terrorist organizations.
Ted I do agree with your analysis but we have a problem or several problems to be exact. Our senior Politicized Military have thrown out of our military doctrine the concept of winning or victory, in asymmetrical conflicts.
Everything is about making points for limited advantage always keeping in mind that our political establishment does not have and never has had a clear political doctrine vis a vis our enemies and have to constamtly adjust from fighting enemy today and calling same peace partner tommorrow. The PA has never been declared an enemy entity and IDF has never been told to win over them. I don’t think they know how to win any more they have been, (IDF) mentally castrated.