New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar exorciated the IDF’s preemptive strikes against Hezbollah on Sunday morning as a continuation of Israel’s failed containment policy.
“Faced with Hezbollah’s decision to fire thousands of missiles and rockets, once again the government chose the least correct strategic response,” Sa’ar stated.
“The choice to only thwart the attack after ten and a half months of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel is the continuation of the policy of containment. This decision has one meaning: only our enemies determine the timing and scale of escalation.”
“This opportunity should have led to a decision on a comprehensive pre-emptive attack to change the reality in the north.”
“Leaving the existing reality in the north of the country unchanged means the continuation of constraint. There will never be a point in time in the future with the perfect conditions for a war. Whoever runs away from war – war will chase him,” Sa’ar ominously concluded.
Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Leiberman responded to the attack by stating: “Israel’s government needs to act per the enemy’s intentions and not according to the results.”
“If Hezbollah indeed intended to fire 6,000 projectiles (missiles, drones, etc.) with the central goal of striking Israel’s strategic infrastructure, just removing the threat cannot suffice. Israel must stop with the defense and go on the offensive and end the war of attrition and the abandonment of the residents of the north for almost 11 months, even at the price of a dramatic escalation.”
“Security must be restored to the residents of Israel and the residents of the north in particular,” he concluded.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
What a complainer!
And if Israel started an “all out war” he would have said it was too harsh
Bh these two clowns don’t run the country. Any level headed person knows you avoid war at all costs. You protect your citizens and avoid all out war
politics at its worst. realistically, a major offensive before november 6th would be viewed in washington as interference in the presidential election, and might even tip the scales in favour of the “wrong” candidate. israel can endure a little longer, in return for america’s support. sa’ar will get a chance to put his ideas into practice soon enough.
To some extent, I agree. There was a clear and compelling rationale last night to inflict much greater damage on Hezbolah but the limited “preemptive” strike did little to change the status quo or allow tens of thousands of Israelis to retrun home. It has been 320 days of all out fighting in Gaza, and 319 days of “limited” fighting in the North. In both cases, there is still no “day after” strategy for long-term resolution of either conflict.