In the past few days, there is a lot of criticism in Israel regarding the war. Blames are put on the army, and on the political leaders. I read a lot of articles this weekend, and here is my personal summary. I collected the links in various places on the web after writing the post. My text is based on my opinions, influenced by various conversations and especially from reading many articles in Haaretz.
Some are speaking about the army’s surprise with Hezbollah’s anti-tank missiles. There were too many of these missiles, and they destroyed many tanks. They also hit many infantry soldiers that were in village houses.
Others are speaking about the reservists being untrained and under-equipped. Complaints about old equipment were joined with complaints about the lack of food and water.
Also the military tactics there were presented to the political leadership came under fire. Luckily for the chief of staff, Dan Halutz, his personal financial matters overshadowed his mistakes in running the war. I think that the stock selling story isn’t that bad. He didn’t use secret internal info, and didn’t do any wild speculant moves in the financial markets. The story overshadows his mistakes, and also those of the leadership.
The leadership of my country is now blamed for many things. They took a very hasty decision when starting the war. Such a serious decision should have been given more thought. Especially when the army wasn’t really ready for it.
They are also blamed for aiming at high goals and changing them frequently during the war. It began from changing the strategical situation in the ME and eliminating the threat of the rockets fired on Israel. It soon became obvious that these goals couldn’t be met.
I also think that they could have stopped it earlier, and I went to some protests, but its over now.
What bothers me most, is how the leadership took care of the civilians up north.
The devestating hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans almost a year ago exposed America’s deepest problems. The people with means, got into their cars and took off. They had the money that drove them to safety. The others were left behind. The weather forecasts were quite accurate and were in the news for many days. The federal government did nothing. When the level of water became lower, it was unvealed that an investment of about $5m in the levee that defended the city could have prevented most the destruction.
Also here, in a much lower scale, the government neglected the residents of the north. Going to war was a decision made by the government. Some say there was no choice, but that’s not my point. My point is, that the government should have taken responsibility for those residents, after it went to war.
Didn’t they expect this rain of 4000 rockets, 1000 of them on Kiryat Shmona? Maybe not. But after the war began, the Katyusha rockets hit the north, and this was the time to act. The government watched how the people with means fled southbound to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Eilat and other safe places. The unhealthy and poor people were just left behind. Only near the end of the war, the government organized short term evacuations.
Another thing that the government avoided is to declare a legal state of war. Declaring the war as a war also in legal terms would have allowed a faster transfer of money to aid those in need.
Like in Katrina, the public is called to help the relief efforts. Volunteers replaced the government in some of it’s basic responsibilites. Many commercial companies did “hugging” campaigns to aid the residents of the north (and to gain good publicity). A known controversial billionaire, Arkadi Gaidamak, also helped in setting up a city of tents on the seashore of Nitzanim.
This is the most disappointing thing for me. The process where the government steps away from it’s responsibility towards the citizens is going on for many years. Well, the last elections, held only 5 months ago focused on social issues. The party that pushed these issues, and to my opinion set the agenda for all the other parties, is the Labor Party, which I vote for. Amir Peretz was elected to lead the party just last Novemeber after heading the national worker’s union for 10 years.
The same Amir Peretz is now minister of defense. He seemed mor like the minister of offense in the current war. I still try to understand the last 60 hour effort to reach the Litani river, after the ceasefire was already decided upon. I still don’t see what good has come out of it. 33 soldiers were killed, and the territory that was conquered in those 2 and half days was quickly evacuated afterwards.
Anyway, I was expecting him, as a very senior member of the government, to do more for the residents of the north. I didn’t expect him to neglect them to the good will of aid organizations, billionaires, and commercial companies.
Today, the government decided to create a special government cabinet led by PM Olmert. This cabinet’s mission is to reconstruct northern Israel after the war.
I hope that this will not stay only as an answer to the wide public criticism inflicted on the government. The elections didn’t bring a change in social policy. Maybe the war will become a turning point not only in ME strategy, but also in social policy in my country.
If not, the government should step down. Some people already call for the resignation of the government because of all the abovementioned failures and others. The sad thing is, that in the current political situation, I don’t see a better alternative.
I grew up in Beer Sheva, the capital of the Negev desert, a large and quite unpopulated desert. Since my migration to Tel Aviv, I rarely visit. Many of my friends have also left the city and now live in Tel Aviv or it’s suburbs.