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Dr. Aaron Lerner is co-founder of , Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict.
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By Dr. Aaron Lerner
August 18, 2006
A generation of proponents of Israeli concessions assured the Israeli public that, if things didn't pan out, the IDF could always cover the mistake in judgment at a relatively low cost.
Israel's perceived weakness in the last war fundamentally changes all that.
I say "perceived weakness" because the outcome of the war reflected mostly the incompetence of the civilian decision makers rather than any crippling faults in the military. Yes -- there were problem in the IDF, but the most part, the IDF soldiers and field commanders, through a combination of initiative and bravery, performed well despite the failings of the IDF technocrats and planners. The problem wasn't with the IDF "machine"
but with the machine's indecisive civilian operators who, as Maj. Gen. Benjamin Gantz, commander of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Army Headquarters put it, took a promising "bullet train" battle plan and turned it into "an urban bus with several stops."
Thanks to the perceived weakness, Israel can no longer be expected to take reckless so-called "risks for peace".
Israel can no longer be expected to risk handing over the control of territory to terror groups promising to be on good behavior.
Israel can no longer be expected to risk ignoring the build up of illegal weapons within its security envelope. An envelope that still includes the Gaza Strip as well as the West Bank.
Israel can no longer be expected to risk relying on inevitably ineffective third parties to supervise border points on its security envelope.
By the same token, Israel can no longer be expected to take the huge risk of withdrawing from the Golan Heights in a "land for piece of paper" swap.
Israel's perceived weakness can also be used to justify changes in its policy towards Arab human shields, what with the potentially devastating consequences if Israel, in the course of respecting human shields, were to be perceived again as weak.
Israel's perceived weakness can also be tapped to justify a freeze on action against the outposts. The post-war IDF arguably simply cannot afford to divert or compromise the vital resources in needs to defend the State just to rip Jews out of their homes.
Yes. It is hardly pleasant to hear our enemies call us weak. But that doesn't mean we cannot exploit it to our advantage.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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