It is hard to win a war when you’re fighting with one hand tied behind your back. It’s even harder to win a war when you tie that hand back yourself. It’s harder yet still when you’re wearing ideological blinders and fail to see the full contours of the enemy.
In going to war against Hamas, Israel is indeed handicapped in so many ways.
Firstly, the IDF has frighteningly handcuffed itself in order to avoid excessive civilian casualties among the civilian population in Gaza, within which Hamas is purposefully embedded.
What army that is truly dedicated to crushing the enemy tells enemy forces which targets exactly it is about to attack, warning the civilian population in particular neighborhoods to flee on very specific days and at specific hours?
Who drops warning fliers from the air and “knocks on roofs” with null bomblets to give further notice that “we are coming in now” — allowing the enemy to set its remote control booby-traps and run to hide while leaving women and children behind to stare down the IDF?
Who ever heard of an army out to really defeat its adversary that telegraphs its every move in advance?
What army has its most elite troops tip-toe through the enemy tulips, being oh-so-careful not to trample the rosebeds, looking only for tunnels and rocket launchers, instead of blasting its way forward with overwhelming power to the center of the enemy formations, seeking to decapitate its leadership?
The answer is the Israel Defense Forces, fighting with one hand self-tied behind its back.
We call this a “humanitarian” way of waging war. Humanitarian for the other side, that is. I think it is cruel and unfair to the citizens and citizen-army of Israel. Just think of the many Israeli boys who would not have been buried this week were it not for Israel’s super-humanitarian and ultra-ultra-considerate combat doctrines.
Israel is further handicapped by an IDF leadership that has not prepared the army for full-scale ground warfare against the enemy. Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said last year that he did not believe that Israel would have a major ground war for at least a decade.
As a result, Israel does not have sufficient well-trained and properly equipped troops, nor fully developed battle plans, for reconquering the Gaza Strip and crushing Hamas.
The chief-of-staff and his team have unabashedly and decidedly chosen in recent years to de-emphasize the ground army, investing instead in the air force, in cyber-warfare capabilities, and in small-scale special operations forces.
That’s fine, but it has knowingly come at the expense of the armored, artillery, infantry and combat engineering corps. The result is that the IDF cannot have, does not have, and has not presented to the cabinet, a truly serious plan for a much broader, deeper and lengthier ground offensive against Hamas. I suspect that the situation would be much the same were Israel to face the need to rout Hezbollah in Lebanon — and we will need to do so.
The army’s inability to present the political echelon with realistic options for an expansion of the offensive against Hamas has of course blind-sided the government and restricted the cabinet’s options. It’s no surprise that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon are hesitant to go any further.
The result is that the IDF has more or less been marching in place for about a week, with large contingents of troops holding static positions inside Gaza (exposed to enemy fire) or whiling away in staging areas just outside Gaza (again, exposed to enemy mortar fire). Sitting ducks.
Israel is further crippled in the fight against Hamas by an invisible threshold that seems to have been reached in terms of the patience of the international community; a threshold that, alas, Israel seems to have resigned itself to.
After three weeks of fighting and much suffering to Palestinian civilians caught in the battlefield, the world has had enough. Israel’s credit has almost run out; its diplomatic maneuvering room mostly exhausted. This is largely because of U.S. President Barack Obama’s fickle friendship, and his unwillingness to understand the broader strategic stakes in this fight.
Finally, Israel is handicapped by lingering delusions about the Palestinians. This includes the erroneous notion that economic development and horizons of prosperity will moderate Palestinian society or undercut the radical Islamic leadership. Therefore Israel is supposed to be “careful” not to destroy too much Palestinian infrastructure and it “must be a partner” in rebuilding the Palestinian polity after the war.
Yet there has been no evidence since Oslo that largesse bestowed upon the Palestinians moderates their political goals or behavior.
The additional delusion is the nonsensical belief, now being revived in some left-wing corners, that Mahmoud Abbas and his so-called Palestinian Authority can be Israel’s salvation.
Abbas is part of the problem, not the solution, as the past decade has demonstrated over and over again. His “security services” cannot guarantee Israel’s security, neither in the Jordan Valley nor the Samarian mountaintops overlooking Ben-Gurion International Airport nor the border crossings between Gaza and Egypt.
Until this country’s leadership rids itself of the delusional belief that a Palestinian state in the West Bank or Gaza is going to rescue Israel from its security and diplomatic dilemmas, it is going to be very hard to make hard-nosed decisions about using the military to truly rout and/or deter the Palestinian terrorist armies on our borders.
Max Said:
I am having an influence on your thinking, here you agree with me.
Max Said:
Did not the AMIGHTY bring you to AbuutuGuutu and I in order to reform your thinking difficulties ??????????
Max Said:
Ain’t notin bout me false, especially falsies !!!!!!!!!!
Max Said:
But you still make use of the Candia Govt. services and protections.
Max Said:
Prayer is STEEL !!!!!!!!!!!!!
watsa46 Said:
On further reflection I would refute this. The Western power elite is responsible for all the continuing deaths in Gaza-Israel It benefits them economically (oil). So they use women and children , just not their own. But I suppose they would use their own (actually those who are not of the nobility) if they could get away with it.
@ watsa46:
Nothing to do with anything I wrote.
lol – brainwashed from the first day of your upbringing.
@ Max:
I do not believe that the “West” use their women and children to commit suicide or as shield to protect themselves the way the great Muslim terrorists do. Freedom of speech still exists here and not there. Many in the West chose not to use their “brain” or have been conditioned to not use their brain, but they are capable and allowed to do so if they chose to at no risk for their li9fe. Since 1945, we do not go after civilians …..
watsa46 Said:
The population of Israel and the population of America has also been brainwashed from the first day of their upbringing. For one thing, they, to various degrees, have been brainwashed to be compliant with repressive authority.
an American population not so brainwashed would not be so easily taken in by Hamas Propaganda and an Israeli population not so brainwashed would have never withdrawn from Gaza and would have demanded and gotten the extermination of Hamas , the moment they “won” their election.
honeybee Said:
What IDF? Who mentioned the IDF?
You see – you are not able to think clearly you have everything all lumped together under some kind of symbol. You are like a person who has a car with a flat tire. You do not wish to insult the integrity of the tire by acknowledging the tire is flat .
So it never gets fixed.
People who are identified with symbols don’t really have any identity of their own. They are easily manipulated by whomever owns the current propaganda system. So if you tell them their side lost – they cry, their side won – they celebrate. In fact nothing real as to happen – you only have to slant the propaganda in one way or the other.
Israel just “won” according to Bibi.
So – no problem – time to celebrate.
So you believe that the “Almighty” actually interferes with events in the world”.
Does that include fairies, angels etc?
It’s impossible to have rational discussion with people who believe any kind of fantasy or whim that they chose.
Again , personal attacks are not valid arguments – it just shows that the person who makes them has some kind of thinking problem.
honeybee Said:
You see objective reasoning as insults because you are identified with symbols and have your self-worth based on symbols and cannot separate the various elements of society to be able to analyze them.
When you are able to self-criticize you are able to have progress else you are doomed to failure through false pride , pride in illusions.
honeybee Said:
I operate under the repression and oppression of the Canadian Government.
And as far as Muslim Terrorists go , the Government is on their side and has sacrificed Canadians to their oppression.
And again that is a personal attack and in way refutes my objective opinions.
Max Said:
God created man as free agent and not as a robot. Man is responsible for choosing to do evil instead of good. Allowing a person to choose his freewill to do evil instead of good doesn’t mean God approves his evil acts.
According to The GotQuestions.org Network:
But we can understand this: God’s permission is not the same as His approval. God permitted Adam to eat of the forbidden tree, but He did not approve of the action. In the same way, God’s allowing the Holocaust in no way suggests His approval of it. God is grieved by the sinfulness of man and the hardness of his heart (Genesis 6:6; Mark 3:5).
While nothing can justify the Holocaust, we do see at least one good thing which came from World War II: Israel now exists as a nation. The Holocaust was a primary reason the White Paper of 1939 was rescinded, freeing Jews to immigrate to Palestine. The fact that, as of 1948, the Jews have a restored national identity helps to fulfill such biblical prophecies as Ezekiel 37 and Matthew 24. Defeating Nazism and giving the land of Israel back to the Jews is a classic example of God’s thwarting Satan’s plan and bringing about good in spite of the evil.
In all of His doings, God is just (Psalm 145:17). The blame for the Holocaust lies squarely on the shoulders of sinful humanity. The Holocaust was the product of sinful choices made by sinful men in rebellion against a holy God. If the Holocaust proves anything, it is the utter depravity of man. Just fourteen years after “the war to end all wars” (World War I), Hitler rose to power. What is even more shocking is that millions followed him, enabling his horrific policies and pursuing a path to national destruction.
And while Nazism took hold in Germany, where were the European churches? Some, it is true, stood fast against the evil in their midst, and some churchmen, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, paid the ultimate price for dissenting. But they were the minority. Most churches of the era acquiesced to Nazi Party rules and remained silent while the Jews were slaughtered. Where were the world leaders? Other than England’s Winston Churchill, the world’s politicos took the route of isolation or appeasement. Neither worked. Where were the good, decent people? Edmund Burke is often quoted as saying, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.” Although there were a few Germans and other Europeans such as Oscar Schindler and Corrie ten Boom and her family, who risked their lives to save thousands of Jews from annihilation, most remained silent and the Holocaust ensued. The question is not so much “Why did God allow the Holocaust?” but “Why did we?”
God gives mankind freedom of choice. We can choose to follow Him and take a stand for righteousness, or we can rebel against Him and pursue evil. The problem resides in the heart of man. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Until man’s heart turns to God, the world will continue to witness “ethnic cleansings,” genocides, and atrocities such as the Holocaust.
Max Said:
Science is catching up with the Bible about the origin of our universe. Scientists used to believe that the universe did not have a beginning unlike the Bible.
They now believe that it has a beginning. Atheists cannot disprove the existence of God.
Some may ask “is there any proof for God’s existence?”
Proof 1:Creation Demands a Creator; Proof 2: Life Demands a Life-Giver; Proof 3:Laws Demand a Law-Giver; Proof 4:Design Demands a Designer; Proof 5: Fulfilled Prophetic Promises; Proof 6: Answered Prayer; and Proof 7: A Way of Life That Works.
@ Max:
One qualification is missing in your position. They have been brainwashed from the first day of their upbringing and they became genocidal fanatics with no ability to think for themselves. They are toys in the hands of fanatical clerics.
Max Said:
” We,we, got a mouse in your pocket. Your only contribution to the struggle are insults.
Max Said:
You mean instead of hiding in Canada. Do not denigrate the IDF to me, I thank the Almighty for their courage in defending the Jewish people.
Max Said:
But you still operate under the protection of the Canadian Govt..
@ Max:
Easier said than done. The value of hostage taking is that it bends other people to do your will – especially if its a perverted one. Israel in the end rewarded Hamas for committing a war crime. That is why they feel no scruples about doing it again – since they understand Israel’s Achilles Heel is its concern over the fate of its soldiers.
honeybee Said:
It is quite clear – when terrorists act to terrorize you – don’t give them what they want and no emotional response to them except defiance.
.
“Do it in private. To the enemy show nothing but steel.”
The Hamas are better warriors – if we capture one of them they say “no problem , he is warrior martyr” – they don’t whine and whimper about it or show publicly how hurt they are – (which leads to making compromise deals as the families give in to their grief) they stuff it up – they will give nothing , make no concession.
–
we should do the same – then they have no payoff for kidnapping.
honeybee Said:
Where I live, where I am, who I am is irrelevant – the question is an objective one.
You have an inability for critical analysis.
And you have got it wrong, I have no identity with Canada nor any share any common culture with Canadians. It is an error to think and act in terms of identities.
Your identity feels attacked (spurious) so you attack what you think is another’s identity (irrelevant).
Results – you are lost.
Many of Israel enemies are in the West. They hide behind the mass media and the western governments.
Max Said:
Not difficult, you write so obscurely.
Max Said:
The fact you live in Canada still remains, you are throwing darts from a distance.
honeybee Said:
that is different circumstance
DUH
You miss the entirety of what I said.
honeybee Said:
Despite the ad hominem, the question still stands.
Max Said:
Easy to say when one lives in Canada.
Max Said:
Prayer is no weakness. I see photos of the soldiers praying are they weak ? ????
ok here we go again – comment is flagged by the robots…
what a waste of effort here.
Sorry, that’s not a very scientific proof – I could just as say the holocaust shows there is no G_D.
In the absence of G-D actually doing anything I would call on Israelis to actually develop a more warlike or warrior mentality than hoping for divine interference or trust in leftist negotiations.
Leftist foreign policy ideology is a cancer. It may have already killed Western civilization. At lest maybe I will have the satisfaction of seeing them perish at the hands of the Muslims before we all go under. A sort of Pyrrhic satisfaction.
If we survive them it will be a cleansing of the leftist idiocy. But the Western power elite is responsible for this leftist ideology – leftism is the philosophy that supports a compliant serfdom that the American ruling class has nurtured.
Rightest domestic policy that creates a fascistic power elite is also a cancer -t eh solution is economic and social democracy with the restoration of true socialistic capitalism and democracy with a militant attitude to protect the rights of the individual as well as the rights of the country.
Max Said:
I believe in prayer too. The very existence of Israel is one of the best proofs for the existence of God. No nation or people came back to power after 2500 years of none-existence as a nation.
The leftists ideology is a cancer that affects western leaders as well as some in Israeli leadership and not a faith in or praying to God.
SHmuel HaLevi 2 Said:
Do it in private. To the enemy show nothing but steel.
What will it take for the Israeli people and leadership to actually desire to win and surive?
What is it? A intentional desire for suicide because of survivor’s guilt complex?
“After three weeks of fighting and much suffering to Palestinian civilians caught in the battlefield, the world has had enough. Israel’s credit has almost run out; its diplomatic maneuvering room mostly exhausted.”
This happens every time. They start but they never “do” and never finish.
This is like a hamster in a cage going round and round – sooner or later he dies of some kind of attrition.
@ Max:
I am a religious Jew and always pray for the well being of our people including soldiers.
Otherwise I fully agree with you.
I do not see Netanyahu doing it though. He will send people to Cairo.
SHmuel HaLevi 2 Said:
No , that’s what the enemy wants – to see you dance on one heel and suffer .
No public prayers – no anxieties , no negotiations, no whining, no hand-wringing, no lamenting, no public grief, no compromises , no rewards for this action. The soldier is there to sacrifice, that’s his duty – if they kill him, that’s on Hamas.
Reward them with death. and take death before dishonor.
“We call this a “humanitarian” way of waging war.”
NO. We call this stupidity, silliness, absurdity, idiocy, insanity.
The IDF is frighteningly handcuffed by incompetent, enemy-worshipper and self-hater leadership.
The first step to achieve peace and security for the Jewish citizens is to change the current Israeli leadership and chose leaders who fear God, are trustworthy, and hate dishonest gain.
Only leaders who are convinced in they hearts and their minds that this LAND is OURS, that this war is a WAR against EVIL, and that Arabs CANNOT LIVE in the midst of Jews, only those can lead the country.
The second step would be to expel manu militari, without any mercy, all the respect terrorist populations of the so-called Palestinian Authority and that of the Hamas towards Jordan, as a temporary measure.
The same should be applied towards all the UnJews in Israel: if they are not happy with that, they are invited to accompany their beloved Arab terrorist population.
The UnJews among the Israeli leaders and the Israeli citizens proved, beyond any doubt and without exception, that they are as nefarious to Jews as their beloved terrorists.
The problem rests with Netanyahu.
He is the one who is responsible for Goldin’s safety and instead desperately want to get Obama and Kerry’s approval.
I’m not absolving Hamas. But I blame Netanyahu for refusing to finish them off.
I would not have said it any better.
Meanwhile lets pray for the soldier kidnapped and his family.
Yet, I am afraid that Netanyahu will find a way to send a delegation to Cairo for “cease fire” talks.
Israel can be prepared to do what is necessary to crush Hamas, regardless of casualties on both sides, if it can say this to itself:
Israel is no longer part of the West.
That is not an indictment of Israel. It is an indictment of the West, which has now completely rejected Judeo-Christian culture for a Marxist one.
Once Israel says that, it can say “F*ck you” to the EU, the UN, the Obama Administration, the World Council of Churches, and Amnesty International and other Jew-hating organizations masquerading as Human Rights NGOs.
Israel will liberate itself from giving a sh*t what the Jew-haters of Europe think. She will accelerate her “pivot to Asia”, toward countries that are not defensive about defending their ancient cultures (i.e. Narendra Modi and India), where the family is intact and out-of-wedlock birthrates are low.
Israel can decide that its natural gas should be liquified and go to Asia. It can accelerate the Red-Med rail link so that China can bypass the Suez canal. It can join with India, Korea and Singapore in development of weapons systems, including fighter planes.
It can emphasize religious tourism from Christian pilgrims in Asia, Latin America and Africa, rather than from secularist Europeans.
And it can tell the Marxist, Jew-hating leftist media to go f*ck itself, including expelling or jailing these Nazi propagandists as she deems necessary.