Israel's Broken Heart

National Post | 2006-08-18 | Yossi Klein Halevi, The New Republic

[Clive]

Israel ping

[Dark Skies]

This is a nation whose heart has been broken: by our failure to...

Whining about broken hearts is for sissy and the soon dearly departed. Israel had better buck up and get rid of her appeasers...and find a Churchill.

[thoughtomator]

I am absolutely amazed that the kidnapped soldiers - all three of them - appear to have been completely abandoned by Israel. That more than anything else is the terrorist victory here.

[Mercat]

I've wanted to visit Jerusalem for 20 years. I feel like I have to go soon. Sad.

[numberonepal]

This is a painful read.

[avital2]

i doubt the kidnapped soldiers have been abandoned. Hizbollah prisoners were taken on several occasions in the last month, and once IDF is back in Israel i believe we will see those H prisoners (not those demanded by Nasrallah) traded for the 2 Israelis - if they have not been killed and mutilated.

[RouxStir]

Immediately after the ceasefire was announced, many on FR complained that the agreement was a disaster for Israel, essentially, a surrending of Israel to Hezbollah and a defeat of the IDF. MANY, MANY others complained that Freepers who took this dark view of the agreement were "armchair generals who knew nothing about the military" or they did not understand that Israel was the real winner in this agreement.

Now, after seeing just the "tip of the iceberg" of how this agreement actually works, I wonder how many Freepers still think this agreement was good for anyone other than Hezbollah, Iran, Syria and terrorism in general?

[thoughtomator]

For Israel to stop punishing Hezbollah AND Hamas without having the soldiers returned (alive or dead), when those kidnappings were the spark that ignited this latest round of war, is abandonment. Now Israel is in the position of doing nothing while its soldiers remain in enemy hands.

[M. Espinola]

Israel requires real leadership, since it's nowhere to be found in Ehud Olmert.

[jwparkerjr]

I think it's pretty instructive that this is the first war Israel has fought in this manner and the first war they've lost. This battle should have been a piece of cake for the IDF, especially when compared to earlier wars where the entire Arab world was aligned against them. Although Israel is the big loser in this the US and England have also suffered a distinct setback in that the enemy would have to be buoyed by this unexpected turn of events. When the war started it was almost a given that the IDF would move into the area that was the source of the rocket attacks and make quick work of eliminating the risk. It was not to be. Alas.

[definitelynotaliberal]

ping

[Paul Ross]

When the war started it was almost a given that the IDF would move into the area that was the source of the rocket attacks and make quick work of eliminating the risk.

That was never possible, because there are no civilians in this conflict...and civilian casualty-avoidance was the mantra of the Olmert operation. A complete non-sequitur in this conflict. E.g., The evidence of Israeli Arabs siding with Hezbollah makes it clear...this is to the death. And all of their allegiance is to Islamo-Fascism... The notion that only 10% of the Muslim world is radicalized has always been a deluded self-deception. Misguided wishful thinking.

Its past time to get real.

[houeto]

The notion that only 10% of the Muslim world is radicalized has always been a deluded self-deception. Misguided wishful thinking. Its past time to get real.

Seems to me that this is a fairly new self-delusion brought on by the liberal multi-culti mindset. I am convinced that early America would not have allowed, under any circumstances, for a mosque to have been built on this soil. Muslims of the world were KNOWN as barbarians, pirates, murderers and thieves.

[goldstategop]

This government will be gone. The leaders may have failed Israel but the people of Israel bore it with Churchillian stamina and NOT a single one of them demanded an end to the war - it was imposed upon them by the country's feckless leaders, who lost the will to fight when the people wanted to go on with the war.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo!)

[Mamzelle]

re: we began this war with the sympathy of a large part of the international community

Not really. The support was always thin, ready to turn against Israel on a dime. Notice that Lieberman lost his primary during this conflict, for instance, in the US.

[avital2]

i don't condone Israeli strategy up to this point. just pointing out what it might be. we'll see what happens.

[mcshot]

At least now, in theory, everything and everyone South of the Litani will be the enemy and bombs should fall versus leaflets. No need to play Mr. Nice guy when the enemy wants to die for perceived rewards. Every effort needs to be made to accommodate them and their sympathizers.
armchair jr. general out.

[naturalized]

None of Israel's wars was ever fought with greater micromanagement by a government, and no government was ever less qualified to manage a war as this one.

Kennedy? McNamara? Helloooooooo?

[naturalized]

I was in Qumran when Shalit was kidnapped. We got to Jerusalem and out just before the Hezzie kidnappings. I wonder when I will get to go back. /vanity