Truth, Reality and Definition of the Situation at Hand ….

Back to Reality, By Israel Harel

Excerpts;

“These are difficult days for Israel,” Ehud Olmert said yesterday of the fatal incidents in the north of the country.

But it is imperative, precisely at this difficult hour, to define exactly – insofar as is possible – what makes these days difficult. After all, only if we know how to define the situation correctly will be able to find ways of getting out of it.

• Without admitting to the grave mistakes, both conceptual and operational, there is no chance that the government that is now seeking the support of the public will be able to put an end to these difficult days.
• The “difficulty” of the times does not stem from the losses and the abductions over which our hearts break in grief…. When the “experts” and analysts seek the reasons for these events, they are looking for them merely under the light of the torch, in other words, in the form of micro-tactic failures – the soldier on lookout who did not look out at Kerem Shalom, the junior officer that prevented the tank from opening fire, the low-ranking commanders who did not get organized in time to give chase to the abductors, and so forth. They hardly pay attention to the more general reasons that facilitated the Hamas action in the south and the Hezbollah attack in the north.
• And not without reason; after all, these “experts” were partners to the shortcomings on the part of the government, particularly over the past three years. And they were not mere partners; they enlisted – to a man almost, and without asking the questions they were obliged to ask in keeping with their professional and human responsibility – on behalf of irresponsible rulers, some of whom were even corrupt. And the responsibility is also shared by senior army officers who did not dare to voice their negative opinions against the moves that led to the loss of Israel’s deterrent capability and the feeling of victory of the terrorist organizations – in Israel, Lebanon and the entire Arab and Muslim realm.
• The voice of the people of truth was not heard, not because they do not exist or because their theories are not well organized; they have disappeared because those who have failed but who continue to control the public dialogue do not permit the people of truth to remind the public who was right and who failed; they do not allow them to repeat the words of truth: You did not merely disengage from Gush Katif, but also from reality. And these then are the results.