Fear of occupation leads to defeat.

By Ted Belman

Caroline Glick in her latest column poses the question Will we now be silent?

[..] In truth, by demurring from placing a metaphorical gun to Olmert’s head, the Winograd Committee did the Israeli people a favor. Its members stated flatly that it is the people’s responsibility – not theirs – to decide who leads the country. And now more than ever, it is the public’s duty to protest the continued tenure of the Olmert government and force it from office.

This duty is not simply a matter of historical vindication for past wrongs. Olmert and his colleagues must be forced from office not because of their failed leadership in the 2006 war in Lebanon. They must be forced from office because of their mismanagement of this year’s war in Gaza.

In its most devastating condemnation of Olmert and his colleagues, the Winograd Committee explained that throughout the war, they never decided – and barely discussed – what sort of war they were fighting. Once the government decided to respond forcibly to Hizbullah’s cross-border raid, the commission noted that it had two clear and distinct options for proceeding. “The first was a short, painful, strong and unexpected blow on Hizbullah, primarily through standoff firepower. The second option was to bring about a significant change of the reality in the south of Lebanon with a large ground operation, including a temporary occupation of the south of Lebanon and ‘cleansing’ it of Hizbullah military infrastructure.” Unable to decide what sort of war it was waging, for 34 days the government moved from tactic to tactic, strategy to strategy, never following through with anything, never realizing that there were consequences for what it was doing. And today, it follows the same model of incompetence in Gaza.

FOR THE past two and a half years Israel has taken no effective action to end the rocket and mortar offensive against the Western Negev from Gaza. And rocket and mortar attacks have quadrupled over this period.

I was on to this in March of ’06 when I wrote “Occupation is the solution, not the problem.”

In my article “No Ceasefire is better than a bad ceasefire” which I wrote in the middle of Lebanon War II, I pointed out the inherent flaw in the Israeli left’s thinking. I made the same point as Caroline makes. Please read it again because it will convince you that the government has learned nothing from that war because it is repeating the same mistakes in Gaza. Fear of occupation leads to defeat.

Far more important than the IDF’s unpreparedness to win the Lebanon War, was the government’s unwillingnesss to win. It believes peace will come out of concessions, not victory.

Yet the opposite is true.