Israel At a Crossroads?

What is going on with Israel’s incursion into Lebanon? Are they making any progress?

Caroline Glick thinks that it is all smoke and mirrors. She writes that the Olmert government is set to accept the UN cease fire and an international force in southern Lebanon. It wants to preserve the idea that the international force can protect Israel, that the same concept can be used to get Israel out of the West Bank, and that a ground war is unnecessary.

Glick thinks that Israel is approaching a revolutionary moment for Israeli public opinion. She sees the situation as similar to the aftermath of the 1973 war when Israel was nearly defeated by Egypt. Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan tried to blame the Israel Defense Force for the near debacle, but reserve IDF Captain Moti Ashkenazi launched a protest movement that succeeded in getting Meir and Dayan to resign. The movement led to the Likud victory in 1977.

There is a palpable sense in Israel that we are on the edge of a revolutionary moment. Our national leadership in the government, the IDF and the media has utterly failed us.



As we stand poised on the edge of an even larger war, the main question that hangs in the balance is what lessons the Israeli people will take from the current fiasco. Will we continue to believe their fictions, or will we find a way to abandon them and move on with leaders who understand that territory is vital, that the jihad is real, that Israel has a right to defensible borders, and that Israel is not to blame for our enemies' hatred?

There is a palpable feeling that the political sands are shifting, both in Israel and in the United States. It means, unfortunately, that life is going to be interesting.