The Discerning Texan

The Winograd post-mortem as described by the Jerusalem Post of the Israel's poorly executed war against Hezbollah last summer indicts not only Olmert, but the policies leading up to the war. The most fundamental reason for the failure was that the IDF had been told to adopt a passive posture everywhere and to respond to each enemy provocation with retreat. And in the end, Israel's inaction bought her not safety but danger. Here are some of the criticisms as summarized by the David Horovitz:

In its sections on the six years preceding the conflict, the commission tracks a process in which the IDF concedes sovereignty at the Lebanon border to Hizbullah. Nothing less. ... The policies of containment and restraint followed by every government since 2000 "essentially enabled Hizbullah to strengthen militarily, without any significant disturbance by Israel."

Conceding "sovereignty at the Lebanon border to Hizbullah" was not hyperbole. The IDF actually retreated from the Israeli border to save themselves because they could not effectively fire back on Hezbollah for political reasons, and hence dug in further back.

Hizbullah amassed its arsenal of missiles and rockets. It deployed along the border. ... There is the detailing of border incidents in which the IDF was consequently refused permission to tackle overt terrorist threats, like the case in November 2005 "when the then-OC Northern Command approved the opening of fire to destroy a terror cell that had emplaced itself along the border." The chief of General Staff overruled him emphatically.

Since its soldiers weren't being allowed to fire back, and their deterrent capability was necessarily disappearing, the IDF protected them by pulling away physically from the commanding position it had been expected to maintain at the border after May 2000's unilateral withdrawal. It tried to protect its silenced soldiers, relocating their bases and lookout points to less exposed positions even as Hizbullah dug in at the fence. One of these abandoned lookout positions, the report documents, had overseen the very scene of the July 12 incursion and kidnapping that sparked the war.

Even Israeli intelligence warnings that the Hezbollah were preparing an incursion failed to awaken the leadership from its accustomed stupor. Having lapsed into a coma, nothing short of the electric shock of open and large scale attack would rouse it again.

Labels: Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon, The Left