As we’re finalizing the closing chapter of Operation Cast Lead, every side is trying to figure out what just happened and what is going to happen in future. Hamas was looking for a way to upgrade its respect around the globe and maybe promote its reputation to Hizbollah’s Level. They were itching for an Israeli incursion into Gaza so that they could create a second Lebanon for IDF. After Lebanon 06, IDF had lost its deterrence in the Arab world especially in Gaza. Hamas was looking for an opportunity to repeat what Hizbollah had done in South Lebanon. On the other hand, Iran and their agents in the region were pushing Hamas into this conflict. Iran had greatly benefited from Lebanon and its support for Hizbollah. Iran needed to drag Israel into a bloody conflict to distract her from attacking Iran’s nuclear facility during the transition of U.S administrations. Therefore, they supplied Hamas with everything they could possibly find to prepare them to attack Israel. Hamas also thought that they are going to teach Israel a new lesson. They dug tunnels just like Hizbollah had done; they had used schools and mosques as weapon depot, and they were just waiting for Israelis to come. So when the ceasefire came to an end by early December, they were confident enough that they could confront Israel militarily. They also had received green light from their master (aka Iran) to start a confrontation. So with full confident in their capabilities, even before the ceasefire come to an end, they alleged their readiness to confront Israel and resumed their attacks against Israeli civilians in the south. However, they had miscalculated one thing. Just like Hamas who was preparing for a war, Israel was watching Hamas’s every move. Not even that, Israel had prepared its special units and trained them to confront Hamas in Gaza and urban areas. Israel had learned necessary lessons from Lebanon to confront Hamas in Gaza. Basically, Israel has Hizbollah to thank for its victory in Gaza. Israel inflicted severe damages through air within hours of the start of conflict. Israel was patient in its planning and she used diligence to conduct its operations in Gaza. IDF was very organized in going into Gaza. Israel kept clear channel of communication between commanders unlike Lebanon that units were all confused and nobody knew what to do. A perfect example of how much damage Israe caused Hamas is this: according to Persian Israel Radio based in Jerusalem, Iran had trained about 100 Hamas fighters in Iran and they had snuck back into Gaza to prepare Hamas to confront Israel. These fighters had received special training with regard to different type of conducting terrorist attacks or weapon trainings. Israel chased and killed all 100 of these fighters. In terms of military objectives, Israel showed its superiority in terms of combat and urban fighting. Hamas had booby trapped every inch of Gaza. Hamas looked miserable in the battles. Israel lost 13 soldiers during this whole operation; 5-7 of them were caused by friendly fire. That is a total embarrassment for Hamas. How misrule and humiliated should you be that another country has to declare victory for you? Hamas totally miscalculated its objectives and forgot that they are not Hizbollah and Israel was very prepared to confront them.
Another issue that arised as a result of this war was the drift that created between commanders in Gaza and Syria. Khaled Mashal was sitting in his comfortable house in Syria ordering these commanders to keep fighting. He was benefiting from all the civilians who were dying in the fighting. However, Hamas commanders kept saying that they were ready for any ceasefire and Hamas commanders in Syria kept rejecting it. This showed the level of inhumanity and lack of respect for human life in part of Hamas commanders in Syria. They did not even value the lives of their own men; would you imagine what they would do to Israelis if they ever get a chance? They could not care less that their fighters did not stand a chance confronting IDF and they were just benefiting from high civilian casualties.
Another issue that is important to notice is remember in Lebanon 06 how the Arab protesters were actually happy the war was happening and they were proud of Hizbollah.
AngryArab blogger was celebrating the war and congratulating Hizbollah on their victory and their actions toward Israeli citizens. They were not sad even a bit that there was a war happening simply because Israel was losing civilians; not even that, they were congratulating Hizbollah for killing and terrorizing Israeli citizens through their bombardment of civilians cities. They were so proud of their war and they were not hiding it. However, in this war, since Hamas was being humiliated, they were furious. Not even that they were furious, they resorted to Anti-Semitic tactic to send their messages to the world. Their protests were filled with absolute hate. They were calling themselves protesting for peace and for peaceful purposes. What happened? How come last time that they had achieved a bit of success, they were not protesting for peace or ceasefire, but out of the sudden they decided to protest for peace? Either way, they were humiliated just like Hamas because this time they portrayed their anger through violence and they showed their true barbaric natures. At the end, Operation Cast Lead was a total success for IDF. Unfortunately there were many civilian casualties, however the blame does not rest on Israel, Israel was targeting what any other country would target which is military targets.
Israel went after targets that Hamas had produced by using them for military objectives such as flying missiles toward Israel. This time, there are extensive video library as to what Israel targeted and the extend Israel went through to defend civilian lives in the conflict. The losers were not Hamas, the losers were Palestinian population in the areas who had to suffer and they will suffer in future. Not that they care, in their mind, it is Israel’s fault no matter what happens. However, Hamas will restore its military capability within a year or two, but until then, at least there will be some quiet time for the both side. All together, Israel restored its deterrence that she had lost because her failures in Lebanon. Now Hizbollah is on notice that Israel is ready to confront them, and if one day Hizbollah decides to send them an invitation, IDF is going to deliver them a hefty and destructive gift. Kol Hakavod IDF!
15 comments:
Dan G
Nicely written, but lets not forget the big picture here and I'll tell you what the big picture is. Iran murdered 13 Israelis and got away with it completely off the hook. They were able to successfully distract the world from taking action against their nuclear facilities and every day they grow closer to their evil goals.
Israel may not have lost, but as long as Iran is able to continually use terror be it Hamas or Hezbollah- Israel will not have won.
correction- 13 soldiers plus presumably some civilians somaybe 16 innocent people mrudered by Iran.
Yeah, but its agents were killed in Gaza. There is no accurate number of Iranian agent who were killed in the attacks, however there are reports of Israelis being after these agents.
Vitaly B.
Ben, just like after the Lebanon war, you are saying Israel won while it has at best only wounded the beast, not killed it. Perhaps my notions of victory are outdated but I don't consider it a victory until the enemy surrenders.
Victory will only be achieved by men who destroy the Hamas regime just like we destroyed the nazi regime - by destroying their forces, by occupying the land, and by putting their leaders on trial.
Great article. Thanks for putting that perspective out there.
I agree that this was a victory for Israel and for "The West" in general.
Hamas was humiliated. They can try to spin it, but that is the bottom line.
Go Israel!
I never said Israel won the war. However Israel did humiliate Hamas to its bone. It is so bad that hamas did not even dare to declare victory. I am saying that Israel performed really well and resumed its deterence in the Arab world. I jsut read an article in BBC how in South Lebanon, they are terrified of Israel now. That is a clear sign that Israel did achieve some of its goal. Israel should not and will not retake Gaza, it is just too much headache!
Dan G.
Yea, but what difference does it make to Iran. Those agents are nothing but pawns to them. Iran doesn't care about death anyway.
I'm with Vitaly
Sandrine R.
i am concerned to tell you the truth, i wounder if Hamas will reinforce now its infrastructures and weapons, actually , i am a bit confused... was the cease fire a little prematured? was it too late? on one hand hamas still exists and on another Israel image in the world media was not doing well...but aren't those islamist radicals etc...too close to Israel? i mean jihadist etc... aren't they too close and Israel has two borders now , one in south one in north with very radical groups who still did not at anytime accept Israel as a State. i know IDF was amazing in this war .. for people who are experts in war ; it is a fact IDF was way ahead...but i am confused about long term results. maybe we are in a new era with obama ? maybe there will be negociations with palestinians etc...or maybe as you said Israel achieved its goals ...finally ...i hope so...but i cant see iran or its allies power really being diminished ...
Israel could not continue the battle, and yes hte ceasefire was premature, but the thing is Israel has bigger plan for the region. Israel did not want Middle East be the first thing on Obama's desk on the first day. Israel wants Obama to deal with Iran and other issues first instead of being high on the agenda. For the short time, Israel did an amazing job. Yes, like I said, Hamas is likely to restore its strength to the time prior of this war, but that will take years and Israel left its mark pretty bad. So for a while, this part will be quiet and Iran's file is the one that needs to be opened now. Hizbollah is also on notice, and therefore they might stay quiet for a while. but these ar all my speculation and we never know what is going to happen 2morrow!
I agree that Hamas was humiliated and the generals in Damascus looked out of touch and cowardly. I understand the need to attack Hamas and its infrastructure to prevent the firing of rockets and terrorizing of the Israeli border communities. But I wonder if in the long run the fierceness of the campaign and the level of casualties among the civilian population has created more enemies of Israel among the Palestinians? I wonder how many Palestinian's who were disgusted with Hamas are now Hamas supporters . . . the short term objectives have been achieved, Israel's military has proven itself capable and thus will keep its enemies at bay for the time being. But at what cost to any hope of future peace, which in the long run should be the ultimate objective.
If peace could be obtained simply through the barrel of a gun, Israel would have been at peace a long time ago. It will be interesting to see what Israel does next to shore up its military victory. Will it seek good faith diplomatic efforts to obtain a lasting peace? Or continue with its previous stranglehold on the West Bank?
It is very true, but you need to know one thing: whether Israel tries to mke good faith effort and use diplomatic relationship or not, there will be enemies in that part of the world. For them, Israel should not even exist, and any peace deal with Israel is only a ceasefire until they could get enough weapon to inflict some damage to Israel. With exception of Jordan and Egypt who don't have any interest in that part of the world, Palestinian got an interest in All of israel, Israel HAS TO MAINTAIN ITS STRONG DETERENCE IN THE REGION, OTHERWISE THERE WILL BE NO PEACE, EVEN A RELATIVE CALM IN THE REGION.
You say Egypt has no interest in the region? I'm not so sure about that. From what I've read and heard, Egyptians consider the West Bank to be not only in their back yard, but inextricably tied to Egypt - Palestinians are their cousins. If Egypt has been willing to put aside the sword and extend the olive branch with Israel then hope exists. In the end perhaps it will be a one state solution but hope springs eternal from the ashes of the dead.
anonymous, a one state solution would be the death of israel. a 2 state solution is preferable.
but egypt isn't "peaceful" towards israel because they realize that israel is right and they were wrong blah blah blah.
egypt has its own terrorist problem to deal with, so they use the tunnels to export these people to gaza and out of egypt. they then terrorize israeli (and palestinian) civilians.
so dont be fooled into thinkint that egypt has seen the light or anything. it's worrying about its own autocratic back.
What manipulation of true facts. What little care for the loss of innocent lives!
What disproportionate use of military power against a dwarf enemy such as the Hamas.
What a reply- instead of 'an eye for an eye', it was more sort of 'a face for an eye', or even more!
IDF has shown utter irresponsibility by being too harsh on the Palestinians. It highly seemed that they were fighting against a religion and not against a plague called the Hamas.
Do you think the Hamas will remain quiet now. They have got all the more reasons to attack Israel in future. Military operation is not the only good option to go against the Islamic militant groups. And that's what the Indian government has been stressing on since day one of the aftermath of the Bombay terror attacks in November last year. Instead of coersive military operation in Pakistan of the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, they took the more peaceful route of that of coercive diplomacy. Although, the results have not been quick and out in a productive way at all, the Indian government has not ruled out its 'last resort' option of that of attacking militancy camps in Pakistan. The reason can also be differing for India and Pakistan; and Israel and the Hamas/ 'Palestine'- because Pakistan is no 'Palestine' and India is no Israel.
But in the end what is appalling to see in case of Israeli-Arab conflict is that it has made the whole Muslim community united (inclusive of Shi'ias and Sunnis) and the Arab world together.
It has made Israel into a very dismal state in front of all religious communities across the board (whether it be the common victims of Islamic fundamentalism or otherwise)
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77
First of all, whoever read my blog, is a lot better than that terrorist apologists who read ur friend's blog, remember the comment: 600,000 jews walked into their death like bunch of sheeps, they are the cowards" it's soemthing like that..i don't remember it exactly but its' there...
anyways, regarding face for an eye! IT IS WAR, WHEN YOU INVITE SOMEONE TO COME AFTER YOU BY THROWING MISSILES, THERE WILL BE A HARSH RESPONSE.
Hamas does have the right to strike Israel and Israel has complete right to respond with everything at its disposal. Either way, Hamas is responsible for what happened in Gaza.
Wow dude, you are really off! I'm quoting Nahind from your terrorist apologists friend, Pouya.
Take your filth and personal attack somewhere else please. You know who I am talking about. If you need the exact quote here it is:
"yea, courages 6000,000 of them line up to go to gas chamber, did not even said beep. As long as they know that they have upper hand they are courages but as soon as feel the real men believe it, they run like mouse. killing children with air plane and missle is not consider courage"
If you need any help, this is from your friend Nahid and she is refering to Jews in Holocaust in case your birdy brain can't handle it. Go back to that same website and take your filth with you because you are welcomed there and not here.
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