NEEDED: An Israeli Military Leader

Of course, it is always easy to criticize from the comfort of a desk, thousands of miles away from the front lines, but to me, a few things seem obvious and need to be expressed so here goes: That the state of Israel would tolerate over a full month of non-stop rocket fire on its cities, effectively chasing a third of its population into bomb shelters and paralyzing the entire economy with no end in sight is…well…simply stunning and unprecedented.

The IDF’s response to the enemy’s aggression has been anemic, unimaginative, discombobulated and ineffective (at least on the surface of things). The campaign began with a predictable air war that was not quickly followed up with a massive, sustained and aggressive ground operation (until recently only 3 Brigades committed). This gave the enemy the impression that Israel does not have the sufficient courage or will to sustain whatever casualties are necessary for victory, and also gave the enemy, sitting in their bunkers, time to adjust as the rockets keep coming. The fact that from the very beginning the Israeli government’s Security Cabinet gave the IDF mixed, micro-managed messages about the authorized extent of the operation only served to contribute to the confusion. Now I hear that the Litani River is no longer the stated objective, as was indicated only 48 hours ago. All of this is playing out in front of a US administration that undoubtedly expected that the valuable time extended would be put to better military use in degrading Hezbollah’s operational capabilities. Instead there seems to be an attitude of war on the cheap: 'Let’s go through the motions until an international force arrives.'

What we have here is a failure of leadership that goes through the offices of the IDF Chief of Staff (a career Air force Officer), the Defense Minister (a career Union Boss), and all the way up to the Prime Ministers office; all otherwise good men who seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is not a failure on the part of the Israeli public (90+% support) or the IDF rank and file who seem entirely ready to do their duty no matter what the cost.

From my humble and admittedly amateur observation post, it seems to me that the only measure at this point that actually counts is the number of rockets falling daily on Israeli civilian population centers. No matter how many press conferences or exciting visuals of F-16’s, artillery batteries and tough-looking soldiers with painted faces and cool helmets parading around, if they can’t stop the rocket fire on the civilian population centers then little has been achieved. What Israel needs is a leader, a real Military leader in the mold of Dayan, Sharon, Rabin, and a few others, who will rise from the ranks and display the nessisary ruthlessness to acheive what needs to be done to stop the rocket fire in spite of the confusion at the political level. Right now, that leader has not materialized. The good news is that it's not too late to turn things around

The Neocon Express

Tags: Middle East, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, G-8 Summit, Hezbollah, Fox News, CNN, Media
Israeli Arabs: Finish off Nasrallah
More Signs of Confusion: IDF ditches plans to reach Litani River
War as the liberal press sees it
'Back Off, Israel,' Doesn't Cut It
Iran to Expand Nuclear Activities in Defiance of U.N.
A tale of 2 stories about anti-Semitism


Like all good mothers, a Palestinian Mother Helps Her Son With His Belt