Saturday, January 17, 2009
Israel Capitulates
The current Israeli government once again decided to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory, announcing a unilateral ceasefire.
Within minutes of it being announced, Hamas celebrated by firing off a barrage of missiles at southern Israel. One of them scored a direct hit at a synagogue in Tifrah, near Ofakim. Fortunately it was empty,but the building was heavily damaged.
The triumvirate of Olmert, Livni and Barak essentially caved in to pressure from the EU and the US and the UN and obtained absolutely nothing concrete in exchange.
Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni met in Washington and cobbled together a hasty Memorandum of Understanding so vague that even Livni admitted was more a starting point than any kind of detailed agreement.
Like the ceasefire imposed on Israel to end the Lebanon War,which was also Condi Rice's handiwork and accepted by Livni, it does absolutely nothing to halt Hamas' aggression or prevent them from rearming. All it does, really, is to mouth some platitudes about using 'international partners' and 'Egyptian cooperation' in stopping Iran from smuggling weapons to Hamas.
Even Livni must know in her putrid heart of hearts that this is farcical.
Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak returned from the Arab summit in Kuwait with a fiery speech last night demanding that Israel cease all military action and pull its forces out of Gaza immediately...and declaring that Egypt would not allow any international monitors of the border crossings on its soil.
By saying so, Mubarak made it even plainer that the Rice/Livni MOU is simply a bad joke at Israel's expense.
As for Hamas, they've already declared that they will not abide by the ceasefire.
And after all, why should they?
Like Hezboallah after the Lebanon war,they will present this as a victory, and fire just enough rockets at Israel to underline that fact while they rebuild their tunnel network and rearm.They have given up absolutely nothing, not even agreeing to release Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit - if he's even still alive.
Not only that, but the international community is preparing a massive influx of reconstruction aid to Gaza, while Israel will not receive a single penny to help rebuild the damage Hamas caused to the southern part of the country.
And the IDF?
They're reportedly livid at having victory snathed away from them by the weakest government in Israel's history. Certainly the e-mails I'm getting bear this out,with the most common comment being, 'what did we fight for'?
The toll on the army's morale is likely to be heavy.
According to the 'ceasefire', the IDF will remain in place for now, only responding when fired upon...which means they're sitting ducks. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that they will be withdrawn under fire in a week or less, as Hamas parades its victory.
While Israel's weak and ineffectual government obviously went along with the program willingly,the fact that they were subjected to this kind of pressure by the US, the EU and the UN in order to preserve a murderous terrorist enclave is significant.
There was a major defeat not only for Israel but for the West. And there is no doubt in my mind that historians will later see this as a major turning point in the War on Jihad.
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