Israel Matzav

If there hadn't been a surrender, there wouldn't have been a Hezbullah attack

Over at YNet, someone named Ofer Shelah has declared himself a 'military expert,' and says that Israel won Sunday's battle with Hezbullah because it withdrew from Southern Lebanon six years ago, a withdrawal that all of the army brass opposed at the time, particularly because it was made by fleeing in the middle of the night:

But what do you know, Israel's withdrawal to the international border allowed the army to respond strongly when attacked. Syria's occupation of Lebanon lost its legitimacy.

From the international border, it turns out Israel has much greater justification for using force to defend itself, and for demanding the Lebanese government take responsibility for the goings-on in that country.

The fact that Israel was defending itself against a couple of Katyusha's and not the "more than 12,000 that Hezbullah has arrayed against us in Southern Lebanon is only because, for the time being, Hezbullah has decided not to push the envelope. But it is definitely clear that we are in a reactive and not a proactive mode in Lebanon. To say that we won the battle because the surrender allowed the army to respond strongly when attacked is absurd. If we hadn't surrendered, there would not have been a battle. And if we had fought without restraint in Southern Lebanon, there never would have been any calls for surrender.

But Shelah gets worse. He goes on to apply his own 'lesson' to other places from which he wants Israel to flee or from which Israel has fled:

And secondly, abandoning the idea of security zones, of pushing borders away from settlements at a cost of unstable and immoral territorial occupations, allows for the increased, more effective use of force.

Obviously Shelah is referring here to Judea, Samaria and Gaza. You can tell he doesn't live in the South. Otherwise he would never have dared make the argument that since the Gaza surrender and expulsion, Israel has used 'increased' force 'more effectively.' The very idea is divorced from reality.

Shelah is leftist thinking at its best. Israel cannot afford to ignore reality in favor of such thinking.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:01 PM