Israel Matzav

Another mea culpa from HaAretz

This seems to be the week for true confessions.

HaAretz columnist Aluf Benn performs mea culpa for what has to be one of the stupidest pieces ever written:

Two weeks ago, I wrote here that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hates Israel but behaves responsibly, and that since he took control of south Lebanon, a stable balance of deterrence has been created on both sides of the border. "His behavior is rational and reasonably predictable. Under the present conditions, that's the best there is. Hezbollah is preserving quiet in the Galilee better than did the pro-Israeli South Lebanese Army," I wrote. But Nasrallah hastened to prove that his behavior is not predictable, when he gave instructions to attack an Israel Defense Forces patrol near Moshav Zarit and kill and kidnap its soldiers.

The mistake in my assessment stemmed, as always, from the idee fixe that what was is what will be. I believed that if Israel and Hezbollah had learned to live according to the "rules of the game" that had developed along their common border, they would be interested in maintaining the balance of power rather than violating it. The IDF, the intelligence services and the government, who have at at their disposal much better sources of information than mine, thought the same. Fact: They lowered the alert level in the north a few days before the attack in Zarit; that means that they expected quiet. But although I was in good company, the responsibility for the mistake is entirely mine.

I'm still waiting for an admission that the flight from Lebanon and the surrender from Gaza have not quite worked out the way they planned. And the IDF last summer was saying that withdrawing from Gaza was foolhardy - at least until all the people who said it were fired.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:27 AM