Free Republic

It was a war Israel was more afraid of winning than of losing. It was a war whose battlefield strategy was based on posturing – on acting as if Israel were conducting an actual all-out war. It was a war in which Israel attempted to defeat the enemy by not defeating him. It was a war of the make-pretend. Let us be clear. Every war has its share of mishaps, glitches, and human errors, and this one was no exception. But this war was fought after many years of massive budget cuts for the military. Convinced that the era of...

JERUSALEM - Israel has put its massive new ground offensive into southern Lebanon on hold for two or three days to give the U.N. Security Council more time to come to an agreement on a cease-fire, an Israeli Cabinet minister and senior officials said Thursday. Israel's Security Cabinet on Wednesday approved an expanded ground offensive in Lebanon, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to put the campaign on hold temporarily to see whether diplomatic efforts will produce results, a senior Israeli government official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Asked by...

So many people are asking "When will it all end?" But the answer is so simple. It will not end until Ramat Aviv is attacked massively by rockets and missiles. How do we know Ehud Olmert and Amir Peretz are still playing games? When the newspaper headlines read: "In heavy fighting today 6 terrorists were killed." When it says, "In heavy fighting today, 10,000 of the enemy were killed," then we will know that Israel has stopped playing. In the meantime, however, even the Israel of today is not the same country as the Israel of a month ago. The...

Most wartime leaders look for “an exit strategy,” but in the case of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, many Israelis are wondering if there is an “entry strategy.” Indeed, in a striking statement that surprised reporters this morning (Wednesday) Prime Minister Olmert seemed to be blaming the Israeli army for not moving earlier and more aggressively to root out terrorists shooting rockets into Israel. “Until yesterday morning no operative plans were presented to to expand our military activities in Lebanon beyond where our army now stand,” declared Mr Olmert in his first live news briefing with reporters since the war...