WarSclerotic

Israel Hayom | Time is running out.

Dan Margalit

The true champion of Operation Protective Edge is Iron Dome. It is the bunker preventing enemy rockets from reaching central Israel, and it has significantly reduced public anxiety. The residents of the greater Tel Aviv area have adapted to the sounds of Iron Dome intercepting rockets, and are going about their daily routine.

Iron Dome has afforded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz the necessary leeway to opt for a slow-paced, controversial gambit: they were trying to withstand considerable rocker fire from Gaza Strip without repeating Operation Pillar of Defense. It was only after it was made clear that Hamas was interested in more than merely flexing its muscles that Israel went on the offensive.

Operations like these see a dynamic list of objectives. Israel had set out to rescue three of its sons, who were murdered in cold blood, and it re-arrested dozens of terrorists, forcing Hamas to change its objectives and demand their release. Once denied, Hamas proceeded to launch a massive rocket attack, and the Israel Defense Forces revised its operational levels to ones that everyone, it seems, sought to avoid.

These slow, perhaps even cumbersome maneuvers, reflected serious political discord: Right-wing ministers, including from the Likud, demanded Israel launch a wide-scale military operation, including a ground incursion of Gaza Strip that would destroy its weapons caches and most likely topple the Hamas government. But senior ministers, backed by Labor MKs Shelly Yachimovich‎ and Omer Bar-Lev, hedged that Israel would be unable to topple Hamas without Egyptian and Jordanian support, and the operational objectives were limited to curbing rocket fire and re-establishing the familiar premise of “quiet equals quiet.”

The debate itself was important, but it too proved dynamic. Netanyahu, Ya’alon and Gantz have decided on a gradual operation, assuming that “there is time.” This may be militarily true thanks to Iron Dome, but the truth is time is running out, because as desperate as Hamas may seem, the situation is bound to change, if only because of the turbid sentiments of many in the Middle East and around the world.

Even Egypt, which is taking great pleasure in seeing the blows dealt to Hamas, officially disapproves of Israel’s actions. The same goes for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has already accused Israel of genocide, and even for the Israeli Arab sector. The latter was made clear on Wednesday, when Ra’am-Ta’al MK Ibrahim Sarsur completely ignored the massive rocket fire on Israel, and rushed to label IDF soldiers “killers.”

The Arab MKs are not alone — they are merely the first. With each passing day more and more Jewish voices seem poised to join the incitement against Israel. They are just waiting for the first military mishap, for a photo of an Arab child who was killed because his family failed to leave their home when warned to do so, to pounce on Israel — much to the delight of foreign ministries worldwide, which are sure to join them soon afterward.

Operation Protective Edge is as defensive as a military campaign can get, but it too will soon be targeted by a coalition of foreign, Arab and Jewish diplomats. This is why the Netanyahu-Ya’alon-Gantz team must make a decision — controversial as it may be — as to how far the operation will go, and maximize the military’s actions accordingly. The hopes of mounting a gradual operation faded away as the fighter jets took off at dawn.

This entry was posted on July 10, 2014 at 2:51 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.