Vinograd report on Israel's Lebanon war in 2006

As expected the Vinograd panel's final report on Israel's 2006 war in Lebanon importantly pronounced that the war's disastrous result for the Jewish state lay on the shoulders of the military. It further said that the war was 'almost inevitable', thereby partly excusing the Olmert Kadima led government in waging a failed war. There was nothing 'inevitable' about the war. Olmert took a decision to strike at Hizbullah when they had caputre two Israeli soldiers. He seized the moment to bring Hizbullah to its knees, thereby striking pre emptively into south Lebanon the 'Party of God's' stronghold. This gang of muderous ruffians, thought he, would in one fell swoop be stilled, but Olmert and his defence minister misjudged. Israel waged a brutual war enflamming Lebanon from one end to another and brought down on its head hundreds of katusha rockets and earned the moral opprobrium worldwide even from a steadfast, uncritical ally like Bush's US. In the end the Israeli army had to withdraw, and Hizbullah became a standard of hope for resisting the Israeli's. In brief, Hizbullah delievered Tel Aviv a boiling defeat. Yet, the Olmert government didn't fall. If you look at the demise of Golda Meir after the 1973 Yom Kippur war where Israel was caught napping and suffered severe embarrassment, forcing Meir's resignation, Olmert has escaped such a fate. The Vinograd findings though sharp absolve Olmert but not his defence minister from a tongue lashing. Olmert won't go for were he to step down, the right wing fanatic Likud will come back to power. So
a stalemate prevails. Yet one thing is sure, Israel has suffered a burning defeat at the hands of Hizbullah, and it knows it although Vinograd might wish to excuse the full import of Olmert's failed war. Israel's loss of face encourage Teheran to taunt Tel Aviv with impunity the more especially since the lame duck mini mouse Bush has no excuse to bomb the hell out of Iran which he branded an axis of evil. Israel's defeat in Lebanon in 2006 is even more searing than when it had to evacuate southern Lebanon--Hizbullah's territory--after the super hawk Sharon invaded it in 1982. It long occupation was eroding the guts of Israeli society from within. The Arab streett has much to yell and shout about it for Israel is no longer the invincible balance of the region's fate. Israel is at a crossroad but it is veering more and more towards war than coming to terms with the Palestinians and its neighbours. The judgment of the prophets of the Torah weigh heavily on its head!