UPDATE 9 am Israel time Saturday:
Yesterday and last night saw a variety of significant Palestinian terrorist incidents that were reported in the israelstreet breaking news ticker in the right hand column.
Once again, southern Israelis had a day in which they were warned by the IDF not to venture too far from a bomb shelter–not that anyone down here in this part of Israel ever does. And lo and behold, two Qassam rocket attacks on the Eshkol region during the evening were confirmed over Israel’s unofficial user-based news service–there are no mainstream media reports about either of them this morning. And once again, there seems to have been no IDF response (see today’s blog). Southern Israel remains under heightened IDF alert for possible terrorist missile attacks from Gaza today.
Also, two Palestinian terrorists–one of whom was identified by Hamas yesterday as belongining to its military wing (as if the terrorist organization has a “non-military” wing) the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades–were killed by IDF soldiers.
One heavily armed terrorist was trying to get into Israel by breaching the new fence along the Egyptian border in the northern Sinai (now that the Rafah crossing has been “permanently opened” by the new Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt, we can expect to see this kind of attempt on an almost daily basis). The other Palestinian terrorist was attempting to breach the fence between Israel and Gaza when he was stopped.
TODAY’S BLOG:
If you check the “Palestinian Terrorist Rockets and Mortars Fired” box to the right, you will see that since January 20th of this year–almost half a year ago-–674 missiles and mortars have been fired at southern Israel, a rate of nearly 4 per day.
The extreme emotional impact of these continuing attacks is impossible to calculate–though research has shown (click here) and (click here) and (click here) that the citizens of southern Israel, particularly the children, have become very prone to post-traumatic stress disorder.
This picture is taken from sderotmedia.org.il--visit this website if you have a chance. The children of Sderot--also now known as the "Qassam children" suffer from extremely high levels of post traumatic stress syndrome. The Israeli government and IDF seem perfectly content to let the situation continue. (Source: http://sderotmedia.org.il/bin/search.cgi?Rank=11&keywords=post%20traumatic%20stress&match=AND)
And the exasperated questions often posed by your humble servant as he bemoans the absolute passivity that has overtaken the IDF General Staff under the “leadership” of Ehud Barak and Benny Gantz are:
“How in the world does the Israeli government permit a situation in which one million of its citizens in the south are under continual bombardment?” (and)
“Why doesn’t the IDF take proactive action against the terrorists in Gaza–striking once and for all at the heart of the Hamas terrorist operation?”
Simply speaking, there is no other government in the world that would permit 4 Qassams, Grads, and mortars to be fired at its citizens everyday.
Part of the answers to the above questions can be found in the Second Lebanon War–which began just over six years ago (July 12, 2006). This war has been much discussed this week in Israel, particularly with former PM Ehud Olmert and his former IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz making speeches which idiotically portray themselves as performing heroically and being responsible for profound changes on the Lebanese border which have strengthened Israel’s security.
One of Israel’s leading media experts on military and defense issues, Amos Harel, has been one of the people most offended by the Olmert and Halutz revisionism. I urge you to read the article he has recently published in the Haaretz newspaper (click here).
What I would like to quote today are a few passages from that article which directly relate to the situation I have just described about the current IDF General Staff and its utter inability to act–and its complete reliance on a passive reactive response to Hamas terrorism.
From Harel:
“Of course, it was not only Olmert’s reputation that was marred by the war. In the near future Brig. Gen. Guy Tzur is expected to be promoted to the rank of major general, and be appointed either to the position of military secretary to Netanyahu or head of the IDF Operations Directorate. In the Second Lebanon War, Tzur was the commander of Division 162, which failed on the main front in Southern Lebanon when it could not advance significantly beyond Wadi Saluki in the final 60 hours of battle . . . [yet] . . . members of the circles close to current Chief of Staff Benny Gantz are convinced that Tzur’s promotion is justified . . .
Around the General Staff table, Tzur will encounter other major generals from that bleak summer of 2006: Home Front Command chief Eyal Eisenberg, at the time commander of a reserve unit that stopped for no reason in the western sector in Lebanon; current navy commander Ram Rothberg, who was reprimanded as head of naval intelligence for not considering the possibility that a missile would be fired from the shore at the INS Hanit; and Military Intelligence chief Aviv Kochavi, who commanded the Gaza Division at the time Gilad Shalit was abducted.
Quite possibly, Brig. Gen. (res. ) Gal Hirsch – the commander of the Lebanon Division when the kidnapping of reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev sparked the war – will also be at the table. There are rumors that Gantz is looking to bring Hirsch back . . .
Of the four division commanders who failed during the Lebanon War, only Brig. Gen. Erez Zuckerman shouldered responsibility and resigned from the IDF less than a year after the war. He has not been called upon to return.”
Finally, Harel laments that the IDF’s best two combat generals have been left by the wayside:
“Zuckerman’s neighbor and friend on Moshav Amikam, Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, was denied appointment as chief of staff at the last minute, after his stupid involvement in the lands affair on the moshav. Brig. Gen. Moshe (Chico ) Tamir, the outstanding combat officer of his generation, was dismissed . . . because of his son’s accident in a military all-terrain vehicle.
Why is it that some officers remain on the outside forever while others are brought back onto the main track and even get promotions? Neither Defense Minister Ehud Barak nor . . . Gantz has ever given an orderly explanation for their considerations.”
There we have it in a nutshell. The current and future members of the IDF General Staff are generals who have demonstrated a complete lack of ability to lead. They are military men who play it safe and who diddle and fiddle while the situation grows worse, preferring to be politically correct and stick their heads in the sand.
It is a situation that does not bode well for us in southern Israel who are used as cannon fodder–and it has ominous implications for Israel when the next war breaks out.
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