Posted on 07/17/2006 12:46:40 PM PDT by Sabramerican
ISRAEL'S NEW FEAR
By RALPH PETERS
July 17, 2006 -- SOMETHING big hasn't happened in the current round of fighting between Israel and its terrorist foes. That absence represents a potentially fatal change in Israeli policy.
For all of the air-attacks on targets in Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Force has not sent in ground troops. If IDF tanks don't thrust across the border in force in the next few days, it will reflect the greatest crisis of will in Israel's history.
Israel is signaling its enemies that it's afraid to risk its soldiers' lives. And the terrorists read the message clearly. This caution will only encourage Israel's enemies - just when the seemingly inevitable advent of Iranian nuclear weapons poses the greatest threat to Israel since 1948.
Israel never squandered the lives of its soldiers. It couldn't afford to. But in past crises a sense of necessity prevailed. The IDF did what it had to do, and did it well for two generations. Then came the long involvement in Lebanon, "Israel's Vietnam." It broke something inside the IDF.
Is Israel's spirit of sacrifice dying? If so, it may prove fatal. Once brilliant in the attack, the IDF has declined into a defensive mindset that air-strikes can't camouflage. Meanwhile, the ruthlessness of Israel's enemies has increased horrifically. They would sacrifice millions of their own people to destroy Israel.
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Israeli decision-makers appear to have learned nothing from the failure of our "Shock and Awe" air campaign against Saddam's regime.
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If the U.S. Air Force, with all its resources, couldn't break Saddam's regime, IDF jets won't defeat Hezbollah - an organization with genuine popular support - by blowing holes in runways in Beirut and humiliating the Lebanese people. But that's about all that air power acting alone can do.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I don't believe Israel is winning.
I don't believe Israel is even engaging the real enemy.
I support what they are doing but it's not nearly enough. If it ends without at a minimum the kidnapped soldiers sleeping in their beds and Hezbollah demolished and its leaders dead, Israel would have lost with a more fatal blow to come later.
That's at a minimum. At more then the minimum, Iran and Syria need to be punished.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1667356/posts
I dont think there's much need to fear Israel backing down.
well, there are engaging. its premature just now to say "they will lose" - although I will admit, if these stories about ruling out ground forces are true, then israel has blown it bigtime. and so has the US, because if we green lighted a plan that, from the start, ruled out a ground invasion - we made a mistake.
This article says it all.
Sad but true.
Ralph Peters knows good and well Israel is prepping the battlefield. He is just putting his concerns on paper to get a little press.
I think Israel would go nuclear if it had to, to prevent large scale loss oflives.
They do need to send in an occupying force.
Yeah!
Generals and commanders in the field usually use all the 'aces' right up front!
It's been how many days? And you want the war to over already?
How long did it take to settle Iraq after we ousted Saddam?
What? You mean it still isn't totally settled?
I don't understand the urgency of some people to have Israel plow into Lebanon without at least making sure they aren't walking into a trap set by Syria and Iran.
Israel just MIGHT be smarter than the nay sayers think.
I think Israel would go nuclear if it had to, to prevent large scale loss of lives.
interesting article in which i am inclined to believe in
What total hysterical crap! Good grief! Israel is being very, very smart and calculating in how they are going about this. Stupid would be just going in like an enraged drunk, just to make happy the popcorn eaters watching on TV.
You and the writer of the piece haven't been keeping up.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1667356/posts
I dont think there's much need to fear Israel backing down.
You have a lot more faith than i do in the Olmert govt.
I don't read Olmert's speech the way you do. Yes, strong words, but in the end, he says he's looking for compliance with UN resolution 1559 which calls for disarming Hezbollah. Ostensibly, this can be realized in different ways. If he said, WE will do everything necessary to destroy Hizbollah as a threat to our people, that would have been different. The Peters article makes the same point that this won't be done my arty and airstrikes: it will take boots on the ground. He makes one or two statements I disagree with, but in the bottom line, he's right.
We believe in Israel. We don't believe in the power of Israel to defy the US State Dpeartment or the "International Community of Towelhead enablers".
When its all said and done Israel will be the loser. Most in the world wont care about the soldiers that were kidnapped or the rockets raining down on its cities. The media will drown the airwaves and papers with reports of civilians killed in Lebanon, and the perceived indiscriminate use of force. Thats the way it always is and always will be.
He's not right. We're six days into this.
You and the writer do not dictate Israel's war plans.
That is the good news.
There is no way to do that without ground troops. They will be going in. It's just a question of when.
There is a point in everyone's life when defending oneself, no matter what, is more important than pandering to the 'community'. And Israel is no different.
FAITH is exactly what Israel was founded on, so the only lack of it is on your side and others so inclined.
If I'm wrong, then you can say so and I'll be the first to admit it. But to say that Israel has no resolve in their own survival, especially after only 6 or 7 days is unrealistic and totally self centered as well.
Time is what Israel needs, but no-one seems to want to give them any.
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