2006-07-21-lessons

By Ira Sharkansky

JERUSALEM—What we are doing is not pretty. CNN and other international media, plus Israeli channels show films of refugees and interviews with those who curse Israel. Ranking officials from the Secretary General of the United Nations downward accuse Israel of gross overreaction and violations of international law, even while they may say that Hezbollah began the conflict, and that Israel has a right of self defense.

The IDF began the fight against the intafada almost six years ago by shelling empty fields, and bombing office buildings of the Palestine National Authority in the middle of the night, after warning people to leave them. All this was meant to be a demonstration of what might follow if the violence against Israelis did not stop. Then there were targeted operations against violent individuals and groups. That brought accusations of killing people who had not been proved guilty, along with the collateral damage of those who happened to be nearby. Often the collateral damage was children who were drawn to the action.

Even recently, in response to the rocketing of Israeli towns from Gaza after we left, the IDF expended tons of munitions shelling empty fields. Again the purpose was to demonstrate power, as well as to make it difficult for those who fired the rockets. It did not work. The rockets were light enough to carry around the craters and through the turned up earth to where they would be fired.

Policy in Lebanon is less forgiving. The residents of villages and urban neighborhoods from which rockets are fired at Israel are being urged to leave, and then IDF is bombing and shelling what used to be their homes. Earlier the air force destroyed bridges and turned roads into rubble, so the exodus has been difficult. On a number of occasions, trucks, buses, and cars have been destroyed from their air. Perhaps it was thought they might contain fighters or weapons. Some of them contained families trying to flee. We see pictures of dead children spread across the road.

Most attention is focused on Lebanon. The Lebanese government, anything but a disinterested party, estimates that half a million refugees are trying to get out of harms way. We hear less about Gaza. There, too, the policy now is to warn residents to leave neighborhoods that harbor rockets and those who fire them. Gaza is closed off. There are not as many places where people can flee from neighborhoods likely to become targets as there are in Lebanon.

Palestinians, and especially the Shiites of Hezbollah, know how to fight and prepare the terrain for defense. Air strikes have been destructive, but rockets keep coming. If Israel wants to move Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon, and strike the organization a crippling blow, it must go in with ground troops. The IDF has begun with small operations of elite troops, and those are resulting in the deaths and funerals reported on hourly newscasts. More thousands of troops are being assembled near the border, and emergency recruitment notices have been sent to many others. Today Mattan was called to work in an academic research institute, to replace a friend who received a call by his reserve unit. For us, that is better than Mattan receiving a call from his reserve unit. We have yet to asked around about the other young men who are close relatives. It is too early to feel secure. This will continue for some time.

Scores of retired colonels, generals, politicians (some of whom are retired generals) and lots of others who have knowledge or feelings are filling the airwaves with their analyses and recommendations. They range from concern for the civilian deaths in Lebanon and urging a cease fire and political negotiations, to demanding an onslaught by ground troops, no matter the cost.

A number of those expressing themselves accuse the most recent prime ministers (Barak and Sharon) for not rooting out the missiles and other weapons shipped from Iran through Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. They compare Israel's situation to the Cuban missile crisis, and say that the Israelis should have behaved like John Kennedy; i.e., risking war for the sake of national defense.

If that was done with great skill, it might have lessened the damage done to Israel. But the religion-crazed Hezbollah and their Iranian mentors are not the Soviet Union of Nikita Khrushchev. A pre-emptive strike would have deprived Israel of the political advantage of waiting until it was attacked before striking back. No matter how many people, politicians, publicists, and governments condemn Israel for destroying Lebanese facilities, uprooting, and killing Lebanese, there is a benefit in having struck in response to an attack on our soldiers while they were on a routine patrol on our territory. Even if we do not root out Hezbollah and destroy completely its capacity to hurt us in the future, the damage caused to Lebanon (and to Palestine in the parallel case) should cause other potential aggressors to think twice before setting out on an adventure against us. They will not love us in this region, but it will help if they are afraid of us. They have never loved us, so the emotional loss will be acceptable.

Sharkansky is an emeritus member of the political science department at Hebrew University in Jerusalem