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Commentary;
Olmert was apparently too busy [presumably giving away more of Eretz Yisrael or freeing more Islamic terrorists to kill more Jews] to have the decency to attend the commendations ceremony to honor the valor and heroism of the IDF soldiers who saved his and his cronies cookies from complete rout by Hezbollah. Glick’s title, “Of Men and Mice”, indeed!
For more on two of the four heroes receiving commendations posthumously, click here. MB
Our World: Of Men and Mice, by Caroline Glick (Jerusalem Post)
“At Sunday’s ceremony…. To their credit, at least the generals, including Halutz, showed up for the ceremony. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert couldn’t even do that much….. Sunday, Olmert was too busy to attend the ceremony.”
Excerpts;
One by one the warriors ascended the stage Sunday evening to receive their commendations for battlefield valor and heroism during the war with Hezbollah last summer. Showing no emotion, they stood stiffly at attention before IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi as an announcer recounted how each one in turn eschewed his own safety and voluntarily walked, flew or rode into enemy kill zones to save wounded comrades and defeat the enemy.
The ceremony in Tel Aviv, broadcast live on television, was deeply inspiring. As Ashkenazi said, the 38 men – four of whom were killed in battle – who received decorations for heroism are the best of Israeli society. And as Defense Minister Ehud Barak noted, Israel’s neighbors should beware. If they dare to wage war against Israel, it is these fearless warriors, who already proved they will stop at nothing to complete their mission, whom they will face in battle.
The warrior spirit, so evident Sunday night, plays a decisive role in the lives of line soldiers and their commanders. The education combat soldiers receive from their parents, and the training and personal example set for them by their squad, platoon, company and battalion commanders all lead to a situation where heroism is a natural component of the IDF’s fighting units. By exposing this fact, the awards ceremony was a source of inspiration and relief.
BUT THE ceremony was also frustrating. The majority of the decorations were given for acts of heroism related to the evacuation of wounded soldiers from battle under heavy enemy fire. Most of those battles occurred between two and five kilometers from the border with Israel. What they demonstrate is that Israel never effectively controlled the battle space it fought on.
This was not the fault of the forces on the ground. This was the fault of the General Staff that sent those forces into battles undermanned. It was the fault of the General Staff that undervalued the strength of Hezbollah units; failed to understand its battle schemes; and mismanaged the fighting. Disturbingly, aside from Ashkenazi, who replaced disgraced Lt. Gen Dan Halutz as Chief of General Staff after the war, almost all the commanders who displayed such incompetence last summer remain in their positions.
The General Staff of course, was not alone in its incompetence. It was led by the most ineffectual government Israel has ever seen. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his government squandered the unprecedented international support that Israel enjoyed on July 12, 2006 when it properly decided to go to war after Hizbullah attacked northern Israel with rockets and missiles and kidnapped IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.
The government failed to understand the regional character of the war and so refused to attack Syria. It ignored the gravity of the situation and so refused for weeks to call up IDF reserve forces. Then after belatedly calling up the reservists, it delayed ordering them into battle until international support for Israel had all but disintegrated and the government had already decided to sue for a cease-fire that left Hizbullah intact as a fighting force and as a political force in Lebanon. In so doing, the government ensured that the heroism of Israel’s forces could not be brought to bear in a manner that could enable Israel to emerge victorious from the war.
LIKE THE General Staff, the government too remains in power. By losing the war despite our soldiers’ competence to win, the Olmert government surrendered the power to shape Israel’s strategic environment to the country’s enemies.
The Olmert government announced last week that tensions along Israel’s border with Syria have decreased markedly. Barak and Olmert proclaim that war with Syria which seemed imminent in July has been successfully averted. But even if this is true, it is far from clear that the abatement of tensions works in Israel’s favor.
Syria’s apparent decision not to launch an immediate attack on Israel does not signify a loss of Syrian will or interest in attacking Israel. Today Iran and Russia are tripping over each other as they line up to provide Syria with advanced weapons and modernize the Syrian military. Their assistance ensures that when war comes, Syria will perform well.
For the first time since the end of the Cold War, Russian military advisers are training Syrian forces on the ground in Syria. As Ma’ariv reported Friday, Russian advisors are involved in improving Syria’s signals intelligence and electronic warfare capabilities. If plans go through for the Russian Navy to station its forces at the Syrian port of Tartus, the Russians are scheduled to secure that port with advanced land to air PMU-2 ballistic missiles that will cover most of Syrian airspace.
At Sunday’s ceremony, the members of the General Staff looked visibly ashamed as the stories of the heroism of the forces they sent into misguided battles were recounted. To their credit, at least the generals, including Halutz, showed up for the ceremony.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert couldn’t even do that much. Just as he refused to attend the official memorial service for the war’s dead in July, so Sunday, Olmert was too busy to attend the ceremony.
Israel owes its survival to its warriors. But for them to successfully defend the country against the expanding regional threats, they must be led by commanders and politicians who are worthy of their sacrifices.