Yet another reflection of Israels absurd shoot-from-the-hip impulsive politically-guided and totally out of control military actions that do not consider either morality or the strategic long-term security or political repercussions of what they are doing. It is the height of irresponsibility, and Israels behavior constitute crimes of the highest order: Chief spokesman of the Israeli military, Brigadier General Moti Almoz, speaking July 8 on Army Radio’s morning show: “We have been instructed by the political echelon to hit Hamas hard.”...Almoz was expressing a frustration that was building in the army command...since the June 12 kidnapping of three Israeli yeshiva boys...a chain of events in which Israel gradually lost control, finally ending up on the brink of a war that nobody wanted — not the army, not the government, not even the enemy, Hamas....The government had known almost from the beginning that the boys were dead. It maintained the fiction that it hoped to find them alive as a pretext to dismantle Hamas’ West Bank operations....It was clear [also] from the beginning that the kidnappers weren’t acting on orders from Hamas leadership in Gaza or Damascus. Hamas’ Hebron branch — more a crime family than a clandestine organization — had a history of acting without the leaders’ knowledge, sometimes against their interests. Yet Netanyahu repeatedly insisted Hamas was responsible for the crime and would pay for it... As tensions increased, cabinet meetings in Jerusalem turned into shouting matches. Ministers on the right demanded the army reoccupy Gaza and destroy Hamas. Netanyahu replied, backed by the army and liberal ministers, that the response must be measured and careful. It was an unaccustomed and plainly uncomfortable role for him. He was caught between his pragmatic and ideological impulses...[As events have played out] the army has “received an absolutely free hand” to act. And how far,...will the army go? “To the extent that it’s up to the army,” Almoz said, “the army is determined to restore quiet.” Will simply restoring quiet be enough? “That’s not up to us,” he said.. The operation’s army code-name, incidentally, ...[in] Hebrew is ... Tzuk Eitan, or “[monumental] cliff.” That, the army seems to feel, is where Israel is headed. No question about that.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 16:06:35 +0000
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