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| By: Israel Insider staff and partners |
| Published: August 25, 2006 |
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Leftwing Yossi Sarid presents an insight into the psychology of Israel's bumbling trio, clinging to each other even as others race to distance themselves from the disastrous troika ruling Israel. A brief excerpt
No leadership has ever before come out of a war so battered and shamed and therefore burning with a desire for vengeance and exacting a price. If the early days of the war were still subject to debate -- justified, not justified -- about the final days there is no dispute whatsoever.
Today it is evident to every child-soon-to-be-a-soldier, that the three days following the cease-fire decision were intended for one purpose only: saving Olmert from mob anger along the front line and the home front, saving Peretz, saving Halutz -- and not necessarily saving the situation. Desperate people made the decision about the superfluous days that exacted a superfluous price. The letter of appointment for the commission of inquiry can therefore be limited to just three days.
The mad dash toward the elusive victory that refuses to be attained did not cease when the cease-fire went into effect. When the report came a week ago about the commando operation in Baalbek, it was hard to believe our ears: Inconceivable, we said to ourselves. Such an operation is only to be considered if intelligence has located the precise whereabouts of our kidnapped soldiers, only for them is it worth taking such a risk. But the lesson of recent years is sad and infuriating: The reports from the Arab side are frequently more accurate than the reports conveyed by the Israeli side.
An elite unit was dispatched to Baalbek to lift the political echelon and the military echelon out of the dung heap, from their nadir in public opinion polls; and the commando unit really captured and brought back with it Hassan Nasrallah, who surprisingly turned out to be a humble vegetable salesman, but that is doubtless just his cover story.
Olmert and Peretz and Halutz are now like chasers after their robbed dignity, and the dignity eludes them.
Read the full op-ed column: Six Degrees of Desperation |
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