WarSclerotic

The conclusion of Operation Pillar of Defense didn’t meet expectations. A week ago there was general agreement in the government, public and even those few opposition elements able to display responsibility – that there was no choice but to land a severe blow against the Gaza-based terrorist groups. Today we are left with the feeling that an opportunity was missed, if not worse.

For an entire week, the Israel Defense Forces and security agencies worked like a well-oiled machine; civilians, despite being under constant fire, demanded that the military keep going; the reservists called up for duty were ready and willing, and expectations reached higher than a mountaintop – but the mountain turned out to be a molehill. Israel once again proved it doesn’t have the determination or the patience required to win.

As usual for us, just 24 hours after Hamas’ “chief of staff” was killed, the flock of talking heads in the various news studios had already begun talk of “arrangements” and how we could “extract ourselves” here and now.

The destructive “nowism” from the “Peace Now” school of thought is dictating the rules of the game and how we fight, and the security of our enemy is a higher priority than our own citizens and soldiers.

The result: Not even 72 hours had passed and Israel already blinked. Hamas remained patient and kept its cool. Israel had already sent a representative to Cairo to discuss a cease-fire, even as the modest goals given to the Israel Defense Forces were still far from met. The message: Israel can be appeased with very little.

Not 120 hours had passed and world leaders who are practically our enemies — Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is the brethren of Hamas and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyup Erdogan, an oppressor of the Kurds (and a descendent of those who committed the Armenian genocide, don’t forget) — have become mediators between Israel and a terrorist organization. Furthermore: An Egyptian president is supposed to be the “arbiter” when Hamas and its colleagues violate the cease-fire agreement.

In other words, Israel has put its own hands in handcuffs. The trap will be revealed to everyone when in a few months Israel will once again be called to the gates of Gaza with the cry of: “Samson, the Palestinians are upon you!” But Samson’s hair has been cut, with his own hands.

Twenty years ago, at the humiliating surrender ceremony on the White House lawn, Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin and their associates relegated an Israeli Prime Minister (Yitzhak Rabin) to the same status as the head of a terrorist organization fighting for the liberation of all of Palestine. This time, even though Israel’s prime minister wasn’t forced to shake the blood-soaked hands of a loathsome murderer, Israeli leaders were once again caught in negotiations as alleged equals, with Hamas. Deterrence was achieved: Israel has been deterred.

Instead of demanding the enemy’s unconditional surrender, it was the enemy actually making conditions for a cease-fire. Instead of emerging weaker from the fighting, the enemy demanded and even improved its status in the easing of the “siege.” Instead of cutting off the supply of weapons to Hamas and its partners, the weapons flow across the hundreds of kilometers through Egypt is no longer “smuggling,” but a continuous and organized supply allowed by the “mediator” himself, to whom Israel was also required to pay its respectful “dues.”

Israel has yet again repeated itself with a partial military success but a diplomatic failure. The military success is partial because among its goals was no demand for the enemy’s unconditional surrender. We would be wise to learn from Winston Churchill’s stated goal to his army against Nazi Germany. We should remember his immortal words: “Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor and now they will have war.” These words are now true for Israel.