 |
Isaac Herzog is a Knesset Member from the Labor Party. A lawyer by profession, he previously served as cabinet secretary in the Barak government.
|
|
|
|
By Isaac Herzog
April 11, 2003
Originally published in the Jerusalem Post.
'When Israel left Egypt..." So we began reading the Haggadah last year, sitting around the Seder table with our wives and children, when the horrible phone call came with the report of the attack at the Park Hotel in Netanya.
Twenty-nine people, celebrating just like us and thousands of other Israeli families, lost their lives in the cruel attack by a heartless suicide bomber. The next night the unity government, headed by Ariel Sharon, decided to launch Operation Defensive Shield.
A year has gone by a year full of pain and anxiety. Maybe this is a good time to stop and take another look, from the correct perspective, at that operation we all felt part of, that aroused a tremendous international resonance, and analyze its results.
Israel entered that fight with a clean conscience. For many months before it had tried to lower the flame of terrorism and block a long series of suicide attacks. Eventually national morale began to erode and with it large parts of the public began to lose their confidence in the IDF's might.
Again and again suicide bombers attacked shopping centers, buses and city centers. In March 2002 the number of victims reached an unprecedented peak: 135 people were killed in terrorist attacks. It seemed that only a concerted operation deep in the center of terrorism would lead to any change.
Operation Defensive Shield lasted a few weeks. Israel, united as it had not been for many years, paid a heavy price in the loss of fighters, dear sons.
During the operation the IDF succeeded in irreparably striking at a horrifying and complex terrorist infrastructure discovered throughout the areas of the Palestinian Authority. Weapons and munitions factories were destroyed and infrastructures of funding, spying and incitement were discovered.
The peak was of course the destruction of the terrorist city discovered hidden in Jenin, the suicide capital.
Today Operation Defensive Shield can be called an unequivocal success. According to defense establishment figures, before the operation the rate of prevention and thwarting of terrorist attacks was about one third that is, about two-thirds of all warnings were carried out.
Today, as a result of the operation and a process that lasted months, the trend has clearly reversed: The rate of prevention and thwarting is over 90 percent.
It is true that every successful attack is a terrible disaster in its own right. But a close examination of the statistics shows that in the last months suicide attacks were carried out about once a month.
A year later, then, it is clear to all that the strategic balance has changed: The IDF and the security forces have become immeasurably stronger in their ability to prevent attacks, and their success rate has dramatically improved.
One clear lesson is that the core of terrorism has to be struck at its heart, wherever it organizes to launch attacks.
But while the Palestinian terror organizations' ability to operate is weakening, it seems like their motivation to act, on the other hand, has not diminished, and the number of warnings has not gone down. This failure should be largely attributed to the government that did not succeed in exploiting the opportunity it had following the operation, and Palestinian shock, generating a real diplomatic process.
Lowering terrorist motivation requires a series of concerted measures, including a real dialogue with a serious Palestinian leadership. There is such a thing, and in order to strengthen it, it needs to be given real tools and a real diplomatic horizon, so that it becomes a partner to the wish and the effort to reduce violence and terrorism.
The positive although slow process of reform in the Palestinian leadership, and the election of Abu Mazen as Palestinian prime minister are definitely steps in the right direction. The necessary movement toward the road map is therefore a vital step in creating political hope, which is crucial to the fight against terrorism. Any foot-dragging can work against Israel.
This is the message British Prime Minister Tony Blair is trying to convey to our leaders. They should think carefully before they turn him into an adversary.
And on the margins, under the cover of world hysteria over what is happening in Iraq, the sights of Defensive Shield, and especially the criticism by Deputy UN Secretary-General Terje Larsen and the attack by the international press, are seen in a completely different light than they were in those days.
This is the place to learn something from the Americans: how they managed to integrate journalists into the battlefield, and how they built an efficient propaganda machine inside the establishment.
Israel had full moral and practical justification to go on that painful operation. It is important that things are not only done but seen to be done.
Let us pray that this year's traditional Passover question of "Why is this night different?" will get a clear answer.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
