Israel’s neighborhood and why Netanyahu was right on the ceasefire
The brutal neighborhood in which Israel lives extends beyond Gaza, and so must the strategy.
Michael Oren, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, commented the other day:
“There’s a longstanding conventional wisdom that Israel doesn’t do well in wars of attrition,” said Michael B. Oren, an Israeli historian and a former ambassador to the United States. “That overlooks a broader historical view that Israel’s entire existence has been a war of attrition, and we’ve won that war.”
In the neighborhood in which Israel lives, Hamas is not even the worst actor, although it is pretty bad.
Israel could not afford to have that never-ending war of attrition wear itself out in Gaza.
What could be achieved against Hamas in Gaza without being bogged down in a multi-year reoccupation, and without unacceptable outcomes such as bombing Hamas’ headquarters underneath Shifa Hospital, was achieved.
All the critics from left and right should understand that there are other threats on the horizon.
The war of attrition continues, and has to be managed wisely.
[Featured Image: Times of Israel homepage, 8-28-2014 6:25 p.m. Eastern]
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Comments
Every day, Israel walks a tight-rope. It has won every war, every day.
You can tell because there are still Israelis.
Michael Oren’s “6 Days of War” is a total resource of the Arab -Israeli war. He’s a smart, straight, and honest Jew defending the real historic record. Highly recommended
My concern is that if Israel doesn’t reoccupy the Gaza territory, the next one in will be ISIS.
Regarding Michael Oren’s clarity and the idea of re-occupying Gaza . . .what follows is a transcript from a radio program titled “How Israel handles itself in the Middle East is a challenge to Jewish morality, says renowned historian Professor Michael B Oren”. . . .
Such is his moral compass.
Call me a cynic, but ISIS marching loyal Assad troops to their execution… isn’t that exactly what the Obama administration wants them to do? Literally, what’s wrong with this picture?
Of course its side activities in Iraq seem inconvenient, but against Assad, this is exactly what the US has been hoping for all this time… right?
The Islamic State is moving rapidly toward a position from which they can take the Golan Heights. There is no more pressing issue for Netanyahu and the IDF; he was correct to at least try to disengage in Gaza with that likelihood in Istael’s immediate future.
And our leaders (??) need to start considering more effective ordinance – fuel-air bombs would be a good start!
The thing about Obama’s line that ISIS is the “JV squad” is that he was technically right, but missed the implications. A JV squad can obliterate a novice squad (the Iraqi military) or a squad that doesn’t want to play (civilians), and can defeat a squad without equipment (the Peshmerga). They can even beat a varsity squad that doesn’t take them seriously (U.S. Intelligence).
Both the Israeli military and the U.S. military, fighting in earnest, could utterly destroy ISIS’s capacity to make war. For that matter, Israel can utterly destroy Hamas and Hezbollah’s ability to make war. But absent a sufficient threat, the world won’t let them. The Golan Heights could be that kind of threat.
Of course, if Obama had a heart, a brain, or courage, he’d be negotiating furiously with European allies to get a coalition together to recognize the independent state of Kurdistan. Provoke the major conventional war in Arabia now before it turns nuclear, and do so with a thoroughly just policy decision.
An independent Kurdistan would magnificently butt-hurt Turkey and Iran, and we all know that Øbama and Valerie Jarrett wouldn’t want that.
One has to wonder why ANYONE surrenders to ISIS!