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Jun 26, 2006

A fashla by our ineffective government

I was waiting to post anything about the events that happened yesterday. I wanted to see how our government would react before I started throwing blame around. I wanted to give the government a chance to make good by its citizens and soldiers. After all, an incident can happen in any country in the world. The question and the test is how the government reacts and takes precautions against it happening again.

Now that I see how our government has reacted, at least initially, I have allowed myself the pleasure of venting further against this ineffective and unqualified government.

The incident is clearly extremely serious. We cleared ourselves out of the Gaza strip about 10 months ago. There were many calls from bold and courageous individuals in the defense establishment at the time to call it off, or to reconsider, to slow it down, etc. Anything to re-work the details of the disengagement. Sharon had never explained to the public in detail his plan and his plan for the future. All he would say when responding to questions about the future post-disengagement safety of Southern Israel was that any incident coming out of Gaza would draw a swift and powerful response. His claim was that now that we would be out of the disputed area, we would always be able to claim the moral high ground and if anything should happen, we would have the right and clear conscience to strike back a powerful blow.

The sad fact is that we left the Gaza area and have suffered many attacks on our sovereign land. We have never responded with the swift and powerful blow that we threatened to use. We have hardly even responded with the weak and ineffective blows, such as shooting “pagazim” into empty fields. We have suffered hundreds of Kassam rocket attacks among other attacks. Now we have suffered a kidnapping and attack on our soldiers. Yet we have still not seen any response, let alone a swift and powerful blow.

In essence the latest attack is not really worse (in the sense of the level of attack against our country) than any of the Kassams we have been attacked with. They are both full attacks on Israeli sovereignty. Yet it is more horrific. The thought of Gilad being held captive by these animals, undergoing who knows what kinds of torture is frightening.

Clearly it is the result of the government policy of restraint in the face of attack. While the Arabs from Gaza have been intent on raising the level of escalation and conflict, Israel constantly refuses to respond. Our government is always worried about the reactions of the world, and never enough about the safety of its own citizens.

No matter what we do, we will always be condemned. Did anybody condemn the Palestinians when they rained all those rockets down on the heads of the residents of Sderot and the surrounding areas? We get condemned for what we do, yet get no credit for our restraint. We always hear that our restraint will give us more acceptance later. We have been showing much restraint for many years. We have refrained from reacting to suicide bombers, rockets, and various other attacks all to the tune of restraint. Yet whenever we might try to cash in on some of that moral high ground, we are condemned as if we never showed any of that good ol’ restraint.

Systematically the Arabs have put us into a situation where we would be vulnerable. We don’t control the arms flow into Gaza. We even supplied them with thousands of weapons. We showed our weakness in not being able to respond effectively, and now we responded with total confusion at the latest events. All we hear are the same threats we have been hearing for months and years. The government should have reacted right away and sent in troops when it was still fresh and confusion reigned.

But they did not. Instead, everybody is busy in the practice of CYA and trying to explain why the other guy was at fault for not predicting and being ready for such an incident. Shimon Peres just said last week, “Kassams, Shmassams” – he belittled the whole concept of our being attacked as something insignificant. Well, Shimon, those kassams shmassems led to this. And our inexperienced and ineffective government had no and has no idea how to respond. Their actions indicate they are waiting for someone else to come in and force them to apologize and give back Gilad, the captured soldier.

No matter what we do, we will always be condemned. Do the right thing, because in the eyes of the world we are evil and wrong no matter what we do. The ineffective and inexperienced politicians who allowed this to happen, and by lack of any meaningful response are setting the stages for future incidents with greater escalations, are at fault for this and should resign or be forced out.

10 comments:

  1. The typical problem. We will continue giving away land only for us to be forced to give away more. Never will they stop. We had no choice. No win situation until our true victory comes. So sad for the settlers who worked so hard to make that their land and had to give it all up. That is the most I know from my limited knowledge of politics. My heart aches for them.

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  2. Raf, Totally argue with you. Nothing more than I can say. You're just absolutely correct.
    -OC

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  3. social - that is a very true and sad problem you mention. another disaster caused by our government, creating a situation in which a large percentage of our own Jews who built up the land are now despised..

    Olah - thanks, but do you argue with me or am I correct? :-)

    Mama - thanks.

    The worst part of it is we are so hogtied. Still no response. every passing minute makes it worse for the captive (Gilad). Yet our government is still showing restraint and making empty threats that scare nobody. And Kassams are still falling on Sderot and Nahal Oz.

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  4. I also agree with you, though with a caveat: I think Sharon really meant it. Were Sharon in charge, today's attack would never have happened, because when the rockets kept falling he would have simply gone into Gaza and actually done something. Sharon was a tactical genius, whatever one may think of him, and he was dedicated to protecting the people of Israel. I wrote a post on this a while back, probably before you started blogging - if you email me, I'll try and find it for you.

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  5. you are mostly correct. in this situation Sharon woudl (likely) have destroyed Gaza immediately, or sent in troops to find the captive at least. Sharon was master tactician and whatever anybody thinks of his last year in power, nobody can take that away from him. But he is no longer with us and the weak leaders still have to deal with the problems caused by the disengagement.

    About the Kassams, he ignored them just like Olmert has been.

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  6. Yeah, Rafi, I mentioned that also. I told Ez the same thing. Sharon wouldn't have let things escalate this far, but the fact that he didn't keep his word from the begging LED to this very moment. You and I both know that Kassamim were falling on Sderot and Nahal Oz months before Sharon's coma, after the Disengagement, and nothing was done about it. The nonchalance and non-response to these attacks emboldened our enemy to committ more acts of terror. I truly believe if Sharon would have "nipped this in the bud" after the very first Kassam fell, LIKE HE PROMISED, this week-end's events would never have happened.
    -OC

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  7. a very accurate assessment Olah.

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  8. Yes it is and nothing to do about it but to wait until mashiach comes. Till then we have to watch and suffer and feel for them.

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  9. social - I do not think you are correct. true Hashem controls everything and we are not really in control. However, he expects us to do our Hishtadlus and run things in a natural manner. That means running governments, voting for politicians and running military campaigns (when necessary). True, there is nothing I personally can do, other than rant about it on a blog only a few people read, but we need to be aware and maybe somebody has influence. Maybe somebody will see the irony of the situation and be influenced to vote differently next time. Support someone who will do the right thing next time.

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