Posted on 04/25/2006 11:19:52 AM PDT by Nachum
"I fear that the government is refraining from sending IDF troops into Gaza to stop the Kassam rockets because it doesn't want to admit its mistake in withdrawing from Gaza in the first place."
So said Prof. Moshe Arens today, speaking with Arutz-7's Uzi Baruch. Prof. Arens served as Defense Minister in four different Israeli governments and Foreign Minister in one.
Arens said that a military ground operation is necessary because the "IDF's artillery barrage on northern Gaza is totally futile, as the terrorists fire the rockets from densely populated areas while Israel shells empty areas."
"The security establishment must not forget," Arens exhorted, "that the Kassams being fired on Ashkelon are being fired from areas that were abandoned as part of the Disengagement. The army must therefore return and conquer these areas, and only in this way will we be able to stop the rockets from being fired at us."
Arens had tough words to say about the withdrawal and the uprooting of the Jews of Gush Katif and northern Shomron. "To forcibly uproot [nearly 9,000 Jews] from their homes, and to use the IDF to do it, was a barbaric act," he said.
On the day the Disengagement began last summer, Arens spoke on IsraelNationalRadio and called the disengagement a “self-inflicted wound” and “the biggest internal crisis that Israel has ever faced. It will leave some serious scars behind. It’s going to be very bad, and I’m sorry I can’t be more optimistic.”
Arens is supportive of the appointment of a non-general such as Labor Chairman Amir Peretz to the position of Defense Minister. "It's truly not good for a Defense Minister to be an army man," Arens said, "because then he comes with preconceptions that make it hard for him to work."
don't fight for the same ground twice.
Israel would be wise to heed his advice.
It should have never been let go. How can you deal in "good faith" with people who are openly sworn to kill you?
You can't, of course. .....and now many people who've thought otherwise are beginning to realize their folly.
It wasn't necessarily a mistake to withdraw. Israel had to, has to, do three things. Choose a line she is prepared to defend. She did that. Secondly, get her people on the safe side of that line, and she did that also.
Now she has to push that line forward, in response to every violation of that line. That third step is absolutely vital. Every attack has to be answered by exacting a price in territory.
Killing your attackers is necessary but ultimately futile, since the arabs have an endless supply of cannon fodder and care nothing about lives damaged or lost. Only land matters to them, so that is the only retaliation that means anything. Every mortar shell, every rocket, every deluded teenager who gets across the line has to be answered by moving the line forward half a kilometer. Any arab residence affected by moving the line should be paid for in cash and bulldozed, and its inhabitants pushed to the far side of the new line.
Israel should never allow itself to be put back in the business of managing arabs. They should be kept on the far side of the line, with the line sealed, and the previous "land for peace" policy with the one-way ratchet has to be reversed. Israel's new policy should be "land for peace" with a one-way ratchet, ratcheting toward Cairo. And Amman. And Damascus. Every attack costs half a kilometer permanently.
Build a wall around it, with no doors. Declare the territory the sovereign state of Palestine. If rockets are launched from the sovereign state of Palestine, the sovereign state of Israel should respond with massive artillary bombardment.
Taking Arab occupied land is ultimately self-defeating for Israel if they want to remain a Jewish state and a democracy. If they become an empire with a minority of Jews holding power over a majority of Arabs, they lose. If they try to absorb the Arabs they control into a democratic state, they lose. The only way for Isreal to take Arab land is to evict the Arabs who live there, which the international community (meaning the USA) would consider politically unacceptable. That's what Sharon realized, and why he withdrew from Gaza.
The answer it seems to me is to counter-fire against wherever rockets are launched from, colateral damage or not. Also to retaliate against the Palstinian Authority on a massive scale.
No, open door into Egypt. Other than that, I agree entirely.
I agree. The Pali's want to be treated like an independent country, so treat 'em that way. Fire the counter-battery. Why go back into the Gaza cesspool?
Heck, if I were president, I'd even give them Iraq after doing a little wheeling and dealing on oil. Sure would change the look of that region for the better.
Yes, sounds crazy, I know. And every time I read about innocent people being murdered by those mad islamic dogs, I get crazier. Sorry, can't help it.
Yes. Exactly. Compensate them fairly and evict them and bulldoze the buildings. Thats why you do it 500 meters at a time. They'll get the message, and you won't have to move it more than once or twice.
I hear what you are saying about the political fallout. But in the end, the only thing that will work, the only thing, is to turn the one-way ratchet the other way. Land for peace, indeed.
There is only one workable solution to the situation. The slammite world has to be forced to find some place in the gigantic swath of territory it owns to put the "palestinians", and that place has to be at least 500 miles from Israel.
More Israeli denial of reality. The Israeli government intends to withdraw from the Old City of Jerusalem and from most of Judea and Samaria. Gaza is inconsequential compared to what's coming next!
I like the way you think!
Good analysis. I think this was Sharon's ultimate plan. He needed time to show the world that the palimonsters were impossible to negotiate with. I think at some point they will reclaim land. But I think the ultimate goal was to create a true Palestine state so they could have someone to go to war with over obvious continued Acts of War by these idiots.
That is essentially their (Sharon's and now Olmert's) current plan, with the exception of the corridor. Separate Israelis from the Palestinians, declare them a country and then wipe them out when they commit acts of war against Israel.
Your analysis is correct but your solution is premature, IMO.
The Palis need more time to get their act together ---- or else! It is too soon for the or else, which was part of the original plan. Give them what they claim they want, their own state, even if it is a lie. That has been done. Now it is up to them to live in peace as a state or to admit the lie and die.
More time is necessary for the or else to be acceptable.
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