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Orit is a painter and writer currently working on her first novel which follows the process of self-discovery of a young Gush Katif refugee.
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By Orit
July 22, 2006
A lot of talk has been going on about the need for a ground operation. And a lot of talk has been going on about the delay in a ground operation. Commentators, usually to the right, say that the IDF should have gone in long ago and that this war can't be won from the skies.
I'm no military analyst, and this may be true. However, I can comment on the reasons why Israel is hesitating.
First, it would be an admission that maybe we shouldn't have withdrawn from Lebanon in the first place. The whole point of leaving was to "disengage" from Lebanon, and a ground operation means re-engaging.
Second, Israel doesn't want to lose any more soldiers. This was a major reason for the 2000 Lebanon surrender, and if Israel goes back in, more soldiers will die. And since soldiers lives are just as important -- if not more important -- than civilian lives, we can't risk them. Better absorb a few rocket attacks on Israeli cities and risk civilian deaths than send in soldiers quickly, efficiently, and valiantly.
Assuming a ground force is imperative for victory, I'm actually not a big fan of sending soldiers in. "Hah!" You may say. "You're a hypocrite, Orit. Here you are warmongering and you don't want our soldiers to fight."
Yes, I want my soldiers to fight -- but to fight a real fight. These are the men of Israel -- our future. They are handsome, strong, and smart. They have wives, girlfriends, and children. I don't want them to die as glorified security guards who go into Lebanon just to ensure the status quo, only to give terrorists more time to re-arm and replay the same situation a few months or years from now. It's unfair to the soldiers and their families.
I want them to go in not as soldiers of the government of Israel, which shows signs of a dictatorship, but as soldiers of Israel, in its best sense, fulfilling a sacred moral duty not only to save Jewish lives, but to expand Israel and spread the ethical values encoded in the Hebrew Bible which guard the inviolable freedom of man. I don't want them going in to get Hizbollah out so that our borders are quiet enough for other soldiers to implement the Convergence plan.
In this war Israel is fighting for her survival -- but only for her physical survival, not her spiritual survival. Our spiritual survival would mean that we assert ourselves against our enemies until they know can't attack us with impunity. It means a re-occupation and an annexation of parts of southern Lebanon, this time never to be given away.
Because all those lives lost in the 1967 war were lost in vain. We gave back the victory. And now, the government defines victory as killing the enemies, but not in killing their ideas and values and asserting our better, more ethical ideas by spreading them throughout a land warped by fascism and hate.
I want them to go in fighting, knowing that if they die, it won't be in vain. It won't be to satisfy an ego trip or popularity contest of the government. It won't be only so that we could have quiet enough borders to undo the victory of previous wars. It will be because their heroism and valor ensure that the people of Israel not only live in peace, but in freedom to flourish and expand -- yes, expand! -- forever.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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