Confessions On GazaNobody knows exactly how many civilians were killed in Israel's military operation in Gaza, but the number is almost certainly somewhere in the hundreds.
Those of us who refuse to blindly support make-believe peace processes are often labeled as "hawkish" or "militant."
But one can be a supporter of Likud or even National Union and still have strong misgivings about collateral damage in the form of large numbers of dead enemy civilians.
For all of the problems with the 1982 Lebanon War, Israel achieved a significant victory when it drove the PLO out of southern Lebanon. If not for the stupidity of the horrid Rabin-Peres government in signing the Oslo Accords, the PLO horror show would have largely ended then and there.
Israel had to act in a military manner against Hamas, and the IDF had every right during combat to act in a manner that prevented its soldiers from being casualties or kidnap victims.
But in contrast to Lebanon, the recent Gaza operation did not radically change Middle East realities. Perhaps Israel's deterrent capability has increased, but that's quite an amorphous matter, and probably could have been accomplished in a far more limited operation.
The bottom line is that unlike the PLO in Lebanon, Hamas still remains firmly in control of Gaza. The government never seemed to have any clear goals with respect to Gaza.
Around five years ago, most of the Hamas leadership was meeting in a Gaza building. The IAF was only authorized by Ariel Sharon to drop a one-ton bomb (rather than a two-ton bomb) on the building, so as not to destroy the entire building and kill the civilians on other floors. The result was that all of the Hamas leaders survived.
That was a mistake. Killing the Hamas leadership would have changed realities (and before long, some of that Hamas was indeed killed).
In contrast, the Gaza operation accomplished much less, and the collateral damage was far higher.
The harsh reality that purported lovers of peace like the Olmert-Livni-Barak trio refuse to admit is that IDF control of Judea, Samaria and Gaza is necessary until such time as a real and viable peace partner appears. With the IDF in Judea and Samaria, there aren't hundreds of dead Arab civilians there. Only in Gaza, from where Israel purportedly "disengaged," do things like that happen.
posted on 2/04/2009
