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Commentary;
It seems patently obvious that without a Jewish faith-based governmental and leadership rooting, without recognition that our existence as a Jewish nation and our being in OUR Land is directly connected to the tenents of Jewish halacha and principle, both the governance and prestige of Israel are doomed to continued deep downward spiral. MB
Two Years of Hindsight (Jerusalem Post Editorial)
Excerpts;
The second anniversary of the 34-day-long Second Lebanon War offers an apt occasion to reflect on its lessons for Israel, now that the dust has settled somewhat. It is almost universally agreed that although the Israeli home front displayed great resilience, the IDF, in failing to harness its overwhelming military superiority, squandered an opportunity to destroy the bulk of Hizbullah’s military presence in southern Lebanon, to crush that group’s state-within-a-state, and to enhance Israel’s deterrence.
PRIME MINISTER Ehud Olmert, who mismanaged the war he had elected to fight, is still in power. In failing to achieve a decisive victory, and in exposing Israeli vulnerability in our ruthless region, Olmert lost the public’s trust. Now, with further grave potential consequences for Israel, he is preoccupied with political survival. “In retrospect,” Winograd Committee member Yehezkel Dror wrote last week in a dismal summation, “I think I erred in trusting the political system and the public to do what was obviously required in light of our harsh findings, namely to remove the prime minister from office.”
The Winograd panel called in January for a radical restructuring of the National Security Council. This, too, has not been implemented.
‘Hezbollah Rearming at Dizzying Pace’, by Herb Keinon (Jerusalem Post)
Excerpt;
“… 2,500 non-uniformed Hezbolllah fighters in southern Lebanon…. Some 40,000 short and medium-range missiles inside Lebanon.”
Hamas Preparing to Pounce, by Hillel Fendel and Ze’ev Ben-Yechiel (Israel National News)
Excerpts;
“Hamas is preparing to renew its rocket attacks – and that it has the wherewithal to do so with fury…. Hamas… was able to amass at least 230 tons of explosives, 30,000 rifles, over six million rounds of ammunition, and scores of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles…”
WITH TWO years of hindsight, however, the broadest unlearned lesson from the war concerns Israel’s political culture itself. From the days of the Muslim conquest of Andalusia to today, it is impossible to recall Arab expressions of guilt or remorse over military victory. In contrast, Israel’s political echelons have typically been prompted to hand-wringing self-examination less by defeat than by victory. Yet healthy self-examination – of the kind so lacking in the wake of the latest war – requires precisely the opposite.
Could it be that both an underlying cause, and an effect, of the failures of the Second Lebanon War is that those steering this country no longer believe in the justice of its cause as utterly as used to be the case? Yet only with such confidence can Israel’s political leadership be expected to exhibit not failure of nerve, but the required steadiness of hand.