Gaza: “there is no escaping a frontal operation”

By Ted Belman

Last week the Knesset issued a report on this war and Evelyn Gorden comments in Lebanon’s Lessons for Gaza

all 17 members of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, representing the entire political spectrum, signed a document stating that the war’s major failure was the delay in launching a large-scale ground operation. [..]

Moreover, another major flaw identified by the report was the inaction of successive governments as Hizbullah positioned itself along the border, constructed fortifications and massively expanded its arsenal following Israel’s pullout from Lebanon in 2000. That inaction, the report said, “reduced the army to paralysis and weakness.”

They could have saved a lot of time if they had read my article, written in the middle of the war, No Ceasefire is better than a Bad Ceasefire,

The prosecution of this war by Olmert’s left leaning government has been a disaster. It has been and is based on the desire to avoid another occupation. There is a belief among the left, undeterred by events, that occupation is the problem. This belief led to the signing of the disastrous Oslo Accords, the retreat from Lebanon in 2000 and the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. And finally it motivates Olmert’s convergence plan.

It is a consequence of this belief that Olmert at first prosecuted an air war only, then allowed for pinpoint incursions only with a withdrawal immediately after, then allowed for a buffer of one kilometer which still was only to consist of a no man’s land without occupation. This has finally given way to multiple incursions without immediate withdrawals, first only to the extent of five kilometers and now to the Litani River but only temporarily because the buffer of choice is still five kilometers in width.

The lessons for Gaza are obvious, don’t wait and invade massively.

Hanegbi said

“An absolute majority of committee members believes that we must not repeat in Gaza the mistake we made for years in Lebanon, and that there’s no escaping a frontal operation,”.

UNFORTUNATELY, the government disagrees. Instead, it is reportedly discussing another tahadiyeh (cease-fire) with Hamas – an absurd idea on two counts.

Some people never learn.