| Monday, August 14, 2006 |
| How Israel lost |
... that's the name of a terrific book I read this summer, by Richard Ben Cramer. The bottom line in the book is that Israel cannot sustain its protracted occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, because it can neither subdue the Palestinian people nor absorb them, without losing its character as a Jewish state (or as a democracy, because to maintain Jewish dominance, it would have to sink completely into apartheid.)
But "how Israel lost" could also be the coda to the recent campaign in Lebanon, and Israelis are apparently waking up this week to not just a ceasefire (however temporary) but also to the sobering realization that their great military failed to achieve any of its key objectives. Hezbollah is decidedly NOT disarmed, nor has the organiation been cowed. Lebanon is in ruins, and so too is the potential for a friendly relationship between this onetime jewel of the Arab world and the Jewish state. And now, his war aims in tatters, and despite the best spin efforts his friends in Washington can muster, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is preparing to face the music. From the Independent:
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, was obliged to admit "shortcomings" in the 34-day-old conflict in Lebanon yesterday as he launched what may prove a protracted fight for his own political survival.
Mr Olmert's admission in a stormy Knesset session came in the face of devastating poll figures showing a majority of the Israeli public believes none or only a very small part of the goals of the war had been achieved.
Adding insult to injury, the leader of Hizbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, crowed on television that his guerrillas had achieved a "strategic historic victory" over Israel.
The Prime Minister, who was repeatedly heckled by opposition MPs during his address, insisted the international commitments in Friday night's UN resolution would "change fundamentally" the balance of forces on the country's northern border.
But, facing his first major political crisis since winning the election five months ago, he acknowledged "the overall responsibility for this operation lies with me, the Prime Minister. I am not asking to share this with anyone." A number of Knesset members including the Israeli Arab Ahmed Tibi, a furious opponent of the war, were ejected from the chamber.
The opening of what is likely to prove a bitter post-mortem came as the two sides began an uneasy truce. The conflict is estimated to have cost well over 1,000 Lebanese lives as well as those of 156 Israelis - civilians and soldiers. ...
...Promising that the government "will have to examine ourselves at all levels," Mr Olmert fought to pre-empt a probable campaign by the political right by declaring that Hizbollah had been dealt a "harsh blow". He added that the guerrilla group was no longer "a state within a state" or a "terrorist organisation that is allowed to act inside a state as an arm of the axis of evil", referring to Syria and Iran. Good try, Olmert. But in the end, what really has Israel gained from its war on Lebanon? I'd say precious little, besides proving to the world what the U.S. proved in Iraq -- that having a superior military does not guarantee victory, particularly when the enemy is essentially the indigenous population of the country you say you're "liberating..."
Tags: Bush, Blair, Mideast, Politics, Israel, Terrorism, War, News, Lebanon |
posted by JReid @ 10:49 PM   |
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