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Israel still paying for its defeat |
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Jeff Jacoby
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06.07.2008 |
It was two years ago this month that Israel and Hezbollah went to war.
On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah, an Iranian-sponsored and Syrian-backed
political and terrorist organization, staged an unprovoked raid across
the Lebanon-Israel border, killing three Israelis and kidnapping two others,
Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. The war that ensued - a war for which
Hezbollah had openly prepared for six years, constructing fortified bunkers
and amassing thousands of Katyusha artillery rockets along the border -
was a disaster for Israel. The fighting lasted for 33 bloody days, during
which Israel achieved none of its key objectives: It didn't destroy Hezbollah,
it didn't stop the barrage of rockets slamming into its northern cities,
and it didn't rescue its kidnapped soldiers.
Never before had Israel's deterrent capability and its reputation for
military indomitability suffered such a blow. For the first time in its
history, Israel had faced an Arab army in battle and failed to defeat it.
When the hostilities ended with the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution
1701, Hezbollah was still on its feet, bloodied but decidedly unbowed.
Two years on, Israel is still paying for its defeat.
In a humiliating capitulation last week, the government of Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert agreed to free five Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists, plus
a still-undetermined number of other security prisoners, in exchange for
the corpses of Regev and Goldwasser. Among those to be turned loose is
the notorious Palestinian murderer Samir Kuntar, who in 1979 savagely killed
4-year-old Einat Haran by smashing her skull against a rock with his rifle
butt, having first shot her father in the back and then drowned him in
the sea. Kuntar, who also killed two policemen and was responsible for
the death of Einat's 2-year-old sister, is today being hailed as a hero
by Israel's enemies. The Palestinian Authority calls him a "brave warrior,"
and Beirut is festooned with his picture.
This is not the first time Israel has negotiated with terrorists for
the release of Israeli hostages (or their remains), nor the first time
it has agreed to free brutal murderers. In so doing, it has almost certainly
guaranteed the abduction of more of its citizens or soldiers in the future,
and ensured the murder of other innocents in days to come.
With every such deal, Jerusalem erodes what little remains of its once-legendary
reputation for avenging the deaths of Israelis killed by terrorists. The
Israel that in 1976 flew a team of commandos 2,000 miles to rescue Jewish
hostages being held in Uganda's Entebbe airport inspired respect and fear
in its enemies. Israel today inspires their scorn. Hezbollah's leader,
Hassan Nasrallah, has said that despite Israel's nuclear power and military
prowess, it "is weaker than a spider's web." Last week's swap of live terrorists
for dead soldiers can only have reinforced that opinion.
For months after Hezbollah's war with Israel ended, there were those
who minimized the significance of its victory. Thomas Friedman argued in
The New York Times, for example, that Hezbollah had "diminished its capability
and Syria's and Iran's" and had failed to achieve "a single strategic gain."
Under Resolution 1701, a new UN peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, was
to patrol southern Lebanon and prevent Hezbollah from rearming or threatening
Israel - "a huge strategic loss for Hezbollah," in Friedman's words.
But UNIFIL has prevented nothing and 1701 is more or less a dead letter.
Far from preventing the flow of new weapons to Hezbollah, the UN peacekeepers
have routinely looked the other way as Iran has massively re-supplied its
Lebanese proxy. Hezbollah is now far better armed than it was in July 2006,
with an estimated 40,000 rockets deployed north of the border, and the
ability to strike 97 percent of Israel's population. Israeli military intelligence
reports that some 2,500 Hezbollah terrorists are in southern Lebanon, and
have built a series of elaborate underground bunkers equipped with rocket
launchers and mortar guns that can be fired by remote control.
Most alarming of all is Hezbollah's effective takeover of Lebanon's
government, which it intimidated into submission through violent rampages
in Beirut in May. Hezbollah extorted the right to name 11 cabinet ministers,
giving it veto power over every government decision. Which means that Hezbollah
is no longer a state-sponsored terrorist organization. Now it is something
far more dangerous: a terrorist organization with a state of its own.
© 2006, Boston Globe
Jewish World Review
July 3, 2008 / 30 Sivan 5768
Russian version
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Materials of the Analytical Group MAOF site in English |
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An introduction to MAOF
Haim Goldman
Dear Friends,
Would you believe that the undersigned has anything in common with
-- Professor Victor Davis Hanson (Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University),
-- Dr Charles Krauthammer, (Washington Post, Time, The Weekly Standard),
-- Caroline Glick (Deputy Managing Editor of the Jerusalem Post),
-- Jonathan Tobin (Executive Editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent).
Amazingly, the editors of the MAOF website decided that the missives of the undersigned are worthy of translation and posting along the articles written by these distinguished authors.
The first letter was published without the consent of the undersigned.
However, after thorough examination of the laudable attitude of MAOF and of the excellent contents of the website, the undersigned had most graciously granted his permission for publication of his missives in both English and Russian.
“Analytical Group MAOF” [1] is an organisation founded about ten years ago by Russian-speaking Jewish intellectuals. The attitude of MAOF is definitely pro-Zionist -- unambiguously and unapologetically.
One of MAOF’s primary purposes is providing information and analysis about Middle-Eastern and world affairs as well as about Israel’s history, values and dilemmas. In addition to extensive publication activity in various media, MAOF also organises excursions and seminars. While the vast majority of the contents of the MAOF website is in Russian, texts originally written in English are provided in the original [2] as well as in Russian.
There are arguably about 250 millions of Russian-speakers worldwide and many of them do not read English. The indisputable motivation for the author’s permission was to grant those millions of disadvantaged people the grand benefit of reading the author’s ruminations. If the author is ever maliciously accused that his tacit motivation for authorising the publication was his craving to be listed along with the above-mentioned distinguished writers, his plea will definitely be “nolo contendere”.
The editors of MAOF expressed their gratitude by granting the undersigned a privilege that no other author got – the opportunity to review and correct the Russian translation before publication. The original letters of the undersigned are at [3] and their Russian version is at [4]. At of today, only two letters are posted but several other letters are pending translation.
You are kindly ENCOURAGED TO RECOMMEND the MAOF website to your friends and colleagues worldwide, particularly those who speak Russian. Those who do not enjoy the benefit of proficiency in the exquisite Russian language can find many thought-provoking and inspiring articles about Middle-Eastern and world affairs in the English section [2].
Sincerely,
Haim Goldman
28.10.2006
REFERENCES:
[1] http://maof.rjews.net
[2] http://maof.rjews.net/section.php3? sid=37&num=25
[3] http://maof.rjews.net/authorg.php3? id=2107&type=a
[4] http://maof.rjews.net/authorg.php3? id=2166&type=a
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