Israeli soul-searching

When I saw this lead to a Washington Post article this morning, I was momentarily confused:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday acknowledged mistakes in the war against Hezbollah as the Israeli government confronted widespread criticism and political recriminations over the conflict.

"There have been failings and shortcomings," Olmert, with deep circles under his eyes and a haggard look on his face, told a special session of the Israeli parliament. "We need to examine ourselves in all aspects and all areas. We will not sweep anything under the table, we will not hide anything. We must ensure that next time things will be done better."

The article said that Israel was engaged in "national soul-searching." For a moment, I thought they meant over the damage done to a neighboring country, the high civilian casualties. Silly me. Israeli society is engaged in "national soul-searching" over why they weren't more successful in wiping out Hezbullah. Everyone's souls are completely at peace regarding all those dead Lebanese.

And Netanyahu will be the next prime minister.

Comments

[m]

and aoun will be the next president in lebanon.

[Alaa]

THINGS WILL BE DONE BETTER NEXT TIME

there is a NEXT TIME folks, wait for it.

[Brian Ulrich]

I'd guess Mofaz takes over Kadima before Bibi gets to the PM's office.

[Dan]

I don't know that Netanyahu will be prime minister next. Although Hamas did help elect him back in the 90s, with their well-timed bombings before the elections. Maybe if the Hizbullah see him doing a bit better than he should in the polls, they'll lob a few more missilve over, to give him a helping hand.

I think it's unfair to be snide about Israel caring more that its objectives were not carried out than about the dead. When you feel you're forced into an us-or-them corner, the answer is always us. You might disagree that Israel was forced into such a corner, but that's easy to say when you're not there, facing the threat. Israel has Hamas on one side, Hizbullah on the other, both aided by Syria and Iran, with the latter every other day reminding the world how much it seeks both nuclear weapons and the destruction of a UN member state. That's only easy to dismiss if you're not there and not at risk.

If I were Israel's PM I would have liked to do things very differently. Personally I don't think the aims warranted the deaths, and I think the aims could have been better achieved by *not* responding in the first place. Not that this justifies Israeli callousness but o I find it hard to believe that, if the Hizbullah got lucky and somehow killed a larger number of people than they had, I don't see there being any soul-searching on the part of most Arab groups.