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Israel leaders: things looking up (GPO photo)
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| By David Bedein May 24, 2007 |
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Israel's leading military affairs analysts have only scorn for Israel's achievements and plans in this stage of the war with the Palestinians.
Alex Fishman, military correspondent for the Yediot Aharonot, Israel's largest paper, points out that Israel is reflexively reacting to Hamas and is basically following the latter's script, without any policy or goals of its own.
"What is Israel's policy regarding Hamas in the Gaza Strip? Is there even such a policy?" Fishman asks. "And what instructions has the political echelon dictated to the army in the current crisis? Targeted killings are not a policy but rather a tactical solution. They can be a reasonable solution if we keep to them for a long time as part of a general policy that also has economic, diplomatic and public-relations measures alongside a variety of military actions, but they are not a policy in themselves."
Ben Caspit of Maariv also complains of Israeli inaction: "There is no end of discussions, talk, chatter and nonsense, without content. Instead of being now at the height of a massive international effort to create legitimacy for a response in defense of Sderot, and to uncover the true face of Hamas, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is sitting in Sderot and being photographed [not to mentioned being the object of crowds there cursing her as an "American whore" and tossing garbage at heavily armed motorcade - editor]. Instead of creating a political and economic program, which will turn all the programs and the funds in the Gaza Strip into something real on the ground, our leaders, including Shimon Peres, continue to be photographed at the Davos conference.... The IDF is also losing patience. To demand from the army a solution to the Kassams without a significant military operation, is like demanding from a blind man that he go treasure-hunting."
Israel Foreign Minister Livni proposed during her recent visit to Egypt that water lines be set up on the Egyptian side of the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip that would flood smuggling tunnels. Under the proposal, the U.S. would finance the project.
Media Analyst Dr. Aaron Lerner notes that it remains unclear why FM Livni has opted to discuss this complex proposal, one which may not be technically possible on both engineering and environmental grounds to implement (and under ideal conditions something that would take a considerable period of time to implement should it be possible) rather than focus on demanding that Egypt exercise its responsibility to keep the border free from arms smuggling, asserting its right of eminent domain and bulldozing a sterile zone of 1,000-2,000 meters on their side of the border to make tunnel construction both difficult and readily observable.
The author writes for the Philiadelphia Evening Bulletin. |
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