POINT OF VIEW:
Israel pays the price...
Israel failed to attain the two goals of its month-long war with
Hizbollah: the release of two reservists captured on July 12 and the
removal of the threat of rocket attack.
Now, as one would expect from a lively democracy, its political and
military leaders are being called to account. In this, the media have
been to the fore: the daily newspaper Haaretz, for example, has demanded
the resignation of Lt Gen Dan Halutz, chief of staff of the Israeli
Defence Forces (IDF).
Even more telling criticism has come from the soldiers themselves, at
both ends of the military spectrum. Brigadier Yossi Hyman, the outgoing
chief infantry and paratroopers officer, has accused the IDF of the "sin
of arrogance", while expressing regret that he did not better prepare
the infantry for war.
At the same time, a group of reservists deployed in Lebanon has sent
a devastating indictment of IDF commanders to Amir Peretz, the defence
minister, and Gen Halutz.
Accusing officers of chronic indecisiveness, the petition refers to
"the heavy feeling that, in the echelons above us, there is nothing but
under-preparation, insincerity, lack of foresight and inability to make
rational decisions". The signatories are not the "peacenik" reservists
who protested against the IDF's presence in Lebanon in the 1980s and
1990s, but men who were prepared to endure hardship for the sake of
crushing the Hizbollah militiamen.
These are but the opening shots in a reckoning that will entail three
inquiries into the conduct of the war - by the defence ministry, a state
ombudsman and the government - and could include a fourth, by the
Knesset. It is difficult to see how Gen Halutz can survive their
findings. And the same may be true for Ehud Olmert, the prime minister,
head of a wobbly coalition whose core policy of further withdrawal from
the West Bank has been rendered void by failure in Lebanon.
These are sobering days for Israel. But if it is to survive in an
Islamic sea grown more boisterous by Hizbollah's Iranian-backed
aggression, it must learn from its mistakes and adapt. This is best done
through the accountability that democracy demands.
(Telegraph.co.uk)
|