Good news: If there's another war with Lebanon, IDF will target infrastructure
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Thursday that in the event of another war with Hezbullah, which as I have noted is appearing more likely, Israel will target Lebanese infrastructure and not pretend that Hezbullah is a state within a state as was the case in 2006. Speaking to Israel Radio, the defense minister said that during the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, there was tacit agreement with the United States to avoid targeting state infrastructure like roads, power stations, airports and other state institutions.Barak's predecessor and Labor party rival,
But if another confrontation erupts in the future, Barak added, the military will no longer be prevented from using its might to its full extent against the enemy.
abor MK Amir Peretz, who preceded Barak as defense minister and was ousted after the war, was interviewed by Israel Radio after Barak and denied his claims. "There is no truth to the claim that Washington prevented Israel from targeting infrastructure," Peretz said.Peretz is wrong as usual.
The former defense minister said that at the onset of the confrontation, Israel had to decide whether to target Hizbullah missile silos or the Lebanese infrastructure, and decided against attacking the latter.
As the outset of the war, Israel did target Hezbullah's missile silos and the Lebanese infrastructure at the same time. Once it destroyed all of the long-range missile silos, it also laid off the infrastructure. That may or may not have been an American request. And the IDF did continue to hit some Lebanese infrastructure, but not systematically or consistently. The IDF was forced to fight the war with one hand tied behind its back.
I highly doubt that the United States told Israel to lay off Lebanon's infrastructure. After all, the United States under George Bush was hoping Israel would also attack Syria. It seems more likely to me that Olmert and Peretz made the decision to lay off Lebanon's infrastructure - probably because everyone other than the US was complaining that the IDF's actions were disproportionate. The JPost article published on Thursday seems to believe the same thing:
In the Second Lebanon War, Israel fought Hizbullah using the strategy that it was battling a 'state within a state' in Lebanon. Then-prime minister Ehud Olmert stressed at the time more than once that Israel had no quarrel with the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people.How wrong he was.
The next war should be different.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:01 PM
4 Comments:
Please Please Please...
If there is another war with lebanon, syria or the palestinians...
PLEASE
KICK their asses....
MAKE them feel real pain...
DRIVE hundreds of thousands of them out of the lands that the rockets come from....
DESTROY
After all it's war...
they want to DESTROY Israel...
No more 1/2 measures...
No more waiting 24 hours for civilians to flee...
It they attack, respond and destroy...
They need to learn....
It is time for Israel to flatten a no-man's land of about 10-20kms inside Lebanon as insurance against these savages.
And annex southern Lebanon for good. Stupid Jews still have not grasped the point of war is to set the enemy back that he will never make good on his losses.
Let's hope Israel learns that lesson in a future conflict.
"probably because everyone other than the US was complaining that the IDF's actions were disproportionate."
And Canada. We may be a minor power internationally, but PM Steven Harper is probably the best friend Israel has since Bush left office.
Post a Comment
<< Home