Operation Guardian of the Walls should have been more aptly named "Operation Change of Direction." After many years of the IDF and its commanders adhering to "containment" and "tiring" the enemy as the only way to fight terror, we just saw a chief of staff whose actions in war matched the aggressive comments he made before the fighting began.
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For the first time in a long time, a war was managed the right way – forcefully, swiftly, and to the greatest extent possible, on the enemy's home front, which in this case was the heart of Gaza's urban, social and economic foundation that funds and maintains terror. What was barely implemented in Operation Protective Edge after more than a month of hesitant and fruitless fighting was put into practice in the first 24 hours of fighting this time around. The gradual process of "escalation" to which we'd grown accustomed, whereby the terrorist leaders always dictate the pace and terms of the fighting, not to mention when it ends, was replaced by painful blows right from the jump.
The latest operation was predicated, as stated, on a military approach that differed from its predecessors and therefore should end differently. Against an organization whose stated goal is the destruction of Israel, no ceasefire should consist of resuming water, electricity, food, fuel and other basic supplies to Gaza. Yitzhak Rabin's approach to fighting terror, whereby "we will strive for peace as if there's no terror and fight terror as if there's no peace" was proven 30 years ago already to be a dangerous delusion. On one hand, it bolstered terror and on the other, it handcuffed Israel in its war against it. A ceasefire, in essence, legitimizes and encourages terror. It was Hamas' decision to fall on its own sword and take all of Gaza down with it, and this is how Israel should have tried explaining itself to the hypocrites in the West.
Comparing Operation Guardian of the Walls to its predecessors is further evidence that Israel's security and ability to employ force don't stem from an overarching and binding security approach, rather from the personal character and military worldview of the person leading the army at a given time. This is a chronic systematic deficiency that we don't talk about enough. When the IDF spearheads a compromising, hesitant, and anguished approach, for example in Operation Protective Edge, it receives the exact same political and public backing as when it spearheads a completely opposite approach.
The IDF's status in Israeli society is so lofty as to be beyond external public and professional criticism, which, like any operational body, is necessary. There has never been a public debate in the Knesset about the IDF's failures in war or in operations; nothing resembling, for example, the British Parliament's discussions in the summer of 1942 following a series of military blunders in the Western Desert campaign. Here, too, there is something to learn from democracies far richer in experience than young Israel.
The media test
Margaret Thatcher, who was a British prime minister, correctly concluded that terrorist groups thrive and depend on the "oxygen of publicity." In this context, we can conclude that the Israeli media is the main producer of oxygen for internal and external terror. This time, too, its duty to report, question and criticize, morphed into something utterly unruly and unrestrained. The endless marathon of reports about shootings, riots and casualties, bundled and presented together as "chaos" and "anarchy" along with the prattling pundits, most of whom are doomsayers, was meant to glue viewers to their screens by sowing fear, anxiety and mainly despair – precisely what terrorists want and need.
The media has no worse enemy than plummeting ratings, and therefore the only way to restrain the Israeli press is to simply stop consuming it and perhaps by doing so lead it toward introspection. There's no reason to be willing hostages to the media, which has essentially become a collaborator with the terrorists and outlaws.
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