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Two Thoughts on Israel
I know I usually steer clear of Israeli and Palestinian stuff -- for reasons most sane human beings will understand. But this recent flotilla nonsense forces me to get two things off my chest. I write this in the spirit Max Boot describes whereby Israel's friends have an obligation to constructively criticize it when things go off the rails.
1. A few days ago, I linked via my Twitter account to George Packer's excellent take on this fiasco at sea. Packer noted, comparing the Israeli and U.S. militaries, the following divide:
At one time, Israelis understood counterinsurgency much better than Americans, which is why U.S. officers looked to their Israeli counterparts for advice in the early years of the Iraq war. At one time, the Israelis understood that self-interest demanded subtlety, restraint, and attention to perception. As others have pointed out, these qualities have been disappearing from Israeli strategy and tactics, and the current right-wing government seems determined to isolate and destroy itself with the unbending principle of self-defense.
This paragraph especially struck me, because I know how true it is. In the early years of the GWOT, I remember reading Israeli after action reports from combat actions in the Second Intifada, paying especially close attention to what tactics they felt were working and which ones the Israelis felt were ineffective. Other guys in my unit at the time described exchanges they had made to Israel and how they had always learned something from their peer units over there.
I still think the U.S. military has a lot to learn from the IDF in terms of tactics, techniques and procedures. But since I left the active duty army in 2004, I have interacted quite a bit with Israeli military officers both through formal interviews and informal discussions over beer or coffee. I still learn a lot whenever I talk to them, but I am increasingly struck by the very real differences that have emerged between them and their U.S. military peers who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. One difference concerns the atittude toward the population within which they operate. Last fall, I was in Israel for a two-week visit and conducted a few formal interviews with various Israeli officers, journalists and scholars. I met for coffee one morning with a retired Israeli general officer to discuss the fighting in southern Lebanon during the 1990s, and before too long, the two of us were engrossed in conversation about guerrilla warfare, Lebanon, the learning process that militaries go through in combat, and a host of related subjects. One hour became two, and two hours became three. The two of us must have downed three cups of coffee apiece, and my hand cramped from all the notes I was taking. At the end of the conversation, though, this retired officer took my hand, squeezed it hard, and said, "Andrew, just remember one thing: the Muslims are like shit. They stink, and there are plenty of them for all of us."
Now in 3+ years of living in the Arabic-speaking world, I have to admit I have heard some pretty horrifically anti-Semitic things said in both polite and not-so-polite conversation. But pardon me if I was a little struck by hearing this language from a retired, educated military officer rather than from, say, a taxi driver in Beirut or some 16-year old Palestinian kid who grew up in Bourj al-Barajneh. Anyway, I shook the man's hand, thanked him for his time, and went on my way shaking my head. Could I imagine a senior U.S. military officer, post-Iraq, saying something like that to a guy with a notebook at the end of a formal interview? I could not. (Though I know quite a few military officers who may have made an Iraqi friend or two while deployed but left the country with little affection for its people or culture.) Fast forward two days to another formal interview, this one at the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv. I was meeting with a colonel there, again discussing southern Lebanon, and with us was a young PAO from the IDF. The PAO, I discovered, was of Iraqi Jewish descent. I had my notebook open, and the PAO had a tape recorder as well as a notebook. Again, the conversation was going great, and I was learning a lot about the learning process the IDF went through in southern Lebanon in the 1990s. But halfway through the conversation, with two notebooks open and tape recorder running, this officer then started on an off-color riff about why the Jews had managed to win so many Nobel Prizes and the Arabs and Muslims, despite their numbers, had won so very few. I was shocked -- not because someone might say such things but because someone might say such things to a visiting researcher with an open notebook. I looked at the PAO to my right, and this Iraqi-Israeli was obviously growing uncomfortable. (I went back into my notebooks as I was writing this post and discovered, to my amusement, that I had written "this guy is an idiot" in Greek script during the interview. If you are ever in a meeting with me and I start writing something in Greek or Arabic, it's because I am writing something I do not want you to be able to read. I have notes from a meeting with a senior staff officer in Afghanistan from last summer that are, sadly, literally half written in Greek. I have a friend who does the same thing in Russian.)
This flip side to these stories would be the many conversations I have had with Israeli officers -- including some very impressive public affairs and combat arms officers -- who managed not to go off on anti-Muslim or anti-Arab riffs during their conversations with me, even after several rounds of beer or wine. I left my most recent research trip to Israel, though, openly wondering a) whether or not anti-Arab or anti-Muslim sentiment was widespread within the officer corps and whether that might have an effect on Israeli operations in the territories and b) whether or not a) was true, whether or not Israel would ever be able to effectively carry out information operations with officers so willing to say crazy stuff to a researcher with an open notebook and a tape recorder.
2. It sometimes upsets my many Arab friends when I write things like this, but I really like Israel and most Israelis. Tel Aviv reminds me a little of Beirut, and I have often thought that when peace breaks out (in the year 2300?) they would make great sister cities. A buddy and I are even planning to start a Beirut-to-Tel Aviv party shuttle for bachelor parties, which I think is a genius idea. But I have often wondered if the nature of Israel's coalition politics forces its government to make short-sighted politically expedient decisions that are not thought out from within a strategic context. Whatever you may think of the QDR or NSS, at least the U.S. government articulates a strategic vision for its security. By contrast, a journalist friend of mine was in a roundtable discussion with three ministers in the Israeli government during Operation Cast Lead. He asked these ministers what their five-to-ten year strategy was to protect their people, i.e. ensure the state. "They stared at me as if I were a unicorn."
What is so shocking about this most recent fiasco, though, is not just the lack of any coherent strategy. (If you're trying to ensure Iran does not become nuclear-armed, might you not want to ensure strong relations with the United States and other key allies -- Europe, Turkey -- in pursuit of that goal? Wouldn't you avoid anything that got in the way of that existential challenge?) What is most shocking is the tactical and operational incompetence of the Israelis. Check out the comments in this post and read the reactions -- many of them from U.S. and allied officers, who make up a large portion of this blog's readership -- chuckling at the expense of the Israelis. When did the IDF -- the elite units in the IDF, even -- become such a laughingstock?
I'll be happy when this storyline fades to the background, but I do not think the dynamic Packer describes -- the new way in which the U.S. military views its Israeli peers -- will. Your guess is as good as mine as to how that might affect U.S. strategy and operations in the region. But when even Meir Dagan starts wondering if Israeli and U.S. interests and attitudes are divergent, we have a crisis in the relationship. And I think most Israelis would concede it matters a lot more for them than it does for us.
Great post. Great
Great post. Great observations.
One thing that can not be underestimated is the degree to which the second Intifada traumatized Israelis and Israeli society. I've got a lot of Israeli friends and I felt like that period of Palestinian suicide bombing made Israelis mildly insane. It's hard for outsiders to relate but the next time you walk into a Starbucks, restaurant or nightclub, imagine someone walking in behind you a few minutes later and blowing themselves up along with everyone else in the joint. Imagine living in a civilian world with walking I.E.D.'s. Granted, there's always been racism and strong anti-Muslim sentiment in parts of Israeli society. But I think that a lot of the "Muslims are sh*t" stuff that you are picking up on from these seemingly unlikely sources springs from the trauma and insanity of that second Intifada. Palestinians turned themselves into walking bombs and Israelis stopped treating them like human beings. The social, cultural and political impact of civilian suicide bombing will linger for a long long time.
As an Iraqi Jew, I've heard
As an Iraqi Jew, I've heard the same Noble Prize winning rant, but it was from relatives, both currently living in Israel and in the US. It seems as if many have divorced their Arab roots from their self image and have bought into the nonsense about "Arab backwardness." The most amusing rant is the one whey they say that Arabs only understand force. Of course, since they themselves are Arab, I always ask whether they're just projecting.
Needless to say, I'm not very popular at family gatherings
I think both your points are
I think both your points are on point-- linking decreasing IO (and COIN) competence to decreasing cultural and political sophistication (to put it mildly), and the utter unpreparedness of the Shayetet commandoes. I mean, this unit has done remarkable things historically, so to watch them rope down one at a time on a crowded deck populated by a visibly hostile mob, without clearing the deck using riot techniques first is downright embarrassing. What kind of Navy SEAL, for comparison, would be tossed overboard in a similar operation?
First 2 comments are also
First 2 comments are also highly on point. The racism greatly increased after the intifada-- a lot of Israelis have trouble seeing Palestinians as anything but a mix of open terrorists and hidden ones.
And Jews from Arab backgrounds (I'm a Syrian Jew myself) are notoriously hostile to their former neighbors, which is understandable in light of recent history. I don't know more than a handful of Syrian or Lebanese Jews (and I know hundreds of SY and LB Jews) who trust Arabs after their or their parents histories in Syria, Lebanon and now Israel. To answer the commenter, you're one of a handful of Iraqi Jews left who would still think of themselves as "Arab Jews", preferring either Babhli (from Babhel, what Iraq used to be), "Mizrachi" ("Eastern, an orientalist designation of the Israeli state dating back decades), or most absurdly "Sephardic" (though Iraqi Jews aren't mostly descended from Spanish expatriates, but are rather an ancient middle eastern community dating much further back).
"But pardon me if I was a
"But pardon me if I was a little struck by hearing this language from a retired, educated military officer rather than from, say, a taxi driver in Beirut or some 16-year old Palestinian kid....."
Why? Are we to believe that Israeli military officers (or senior military officers in general) are somehow creatures above the rest, a separate species, wiser, more humane, and just betterererer than the common slugs? Two words- Ariel and Sharon.
All of these comments are
All of these comments are good ones, but the comment how even many "liberal" bien pensant Israelis hardened after the second intifada is one that a lot of Israeli friends have echoed and, I think, is true. And Visitor 1217, just to be clear, the smartest person I know was born and raised in Bourj al-Barajneh (aside from a few years during the war), so my comment wasn't meant as a slight there. But yes, I do expect more of an Israeli officer, just as I would expect more from, I dunno, an AUB or LU professor.When did the IDF -- the
When did the IDF -- the elite units in the IDF, even -- become such a laughingstock?
The Israeli Navy has always been a bad joke, and the "ground army" portion of the IDF is only so-so (although the Air Force is excellent). They only look good because most of the surrounding Arab armies are/were incredibly bad by comparison.
I would argue that the
I would argue that the trends you are describing are more the result of internal changes in Israeli society (economics and demographics and their impact on national Israeli politics) rather than the evolutionary vagaries of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Bit of a shameless plug, but
Bit of a shameless plug, but connected to the topic:
http://thinkstrat.wordpress.com/
If you look at the faces of
If you look at the faces of the turkish dead at http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2010/06/putting-names-to-faces.html, thats some dudes who decided to make a fight out of it. From their perspective, they would just as much be defending the flag as defending Allah. Do not underestimate turkish nationalism, they have a lot of competent lads to put into a synergic battlefield. Even the turks in Afghaqn. I think support them.
occupation brutalizes. and
occupation brutalizes. and Americans have been aiding and abetting it. we have ourselves become brutalized by this process. we have become sucked in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars thru our blind support of the Israeli occupation. they are the new Afrikaaners. What are the costs to us? 10,000 dead? 50,000 wounded? 10 trillion blown?
WILL
. . It is human nature to be
.
.
It is human nature to be judgemental. I would not want to live in a world where people had the same views. Take away what you can and leave the rest. I respect the view of both sides. Not going to put myself above them. Have to walk in their shoes a lot further than a few paragraphs or few hours to understand a life time. In my experience people generalize to a specific behavior, but respond differently to individuals.
Israel and it's location was a bad marriage from the start. It will take more than just one life time to understand.
Help is more needed than critique. We can not change them, only they can decide to change. Until then, I respect a person's/peoples right to defend what they hold in their hearts to be true. It does not mean I agree with it.
That is what free men do.
What the US has to do is decide the best help. Sometimes that means letting the parties work out their differences by themselves.
You forgot to mention that
You forgot to mention that the IDF has the hottest jewish girls on the planet, even some black honeys, and I think some Asian looking ones too, go figure. And regarding Tel Aviv, they have some of the hottest jewish strippers, with many ukranian "jewess" offering happy endings. This why Israel is better than the Arabs. They know how to party.
I don't talk to Israeli
I don't talk to Israeli commanders, but I do know quite a few guys who served in the territories, including some I grew up with in suburban American communities.
What strikes me, when speaking to them, is the lack of "platoon-level" engagement with the population, which I would think would be necessary. Some of them have been through West Bank Arab villages dozens of times, and know them like the back of their hand. So I'll ask them, who is the dominant family in that village and what clan are they, and they'll stare at me with blank stares - that's for intelligence, they're respond, we don't worry about that. How can you not?!
I dated a real felahe Palestinian for three years, and sometimes find myself teaching them about certain aspects of culture and village dynamics, even though I never stepped foot in those villages, and they had been through them dozens of times. They're just not at all curious to understand how Palestinians live, what their mindset is, even though it could improve their operational performance. Forget trying to make personal contacts in the villages. I'm not sure if they would even be allowed to do so.
I think this is a real problem. Also, remember that Israelis are drafted. They may be proud to serve their country, but they don't want to be under that hot sun, looking for some guy while the kids run around them throwing rocks and calling them names.
The entire outlook is defeatist. They write off the entire Palestinian population as hostile. There is zero hearts and minds. It wasn't always like that. I hope army intelligence and shaback are trained to be more curious, more inquisitive and, well... intelligent.
What's worse, is that many of these guys are highly intelligent. They will be engineers, scientists, doctors, but in the army, they just don't think about the issues I wrote about above. Why?!
Sayyed Abu Muqawama, Andrew,
Sayyed Abu Muqawama,
Andrew, it seems that the major difference in how the US views the "enemy population" versus how the Israelis do is effected by the fact that we're so removed in North America. Israelis are not waging third party COIN, as we are in Afghanistan. We can go home and never see them again; and perhaps we will. But the Israelis will always live next to Muslims, Christians and every other minority group that isn't Jewish and can be made into some kind of xenophobic scum.
Not all Israelis are like that of course. But it also helps explain the Wall. Like you wall in animals; wild dogs. Simply, the Israelis want a Jewish state, and their psychology has followed.
Just behind a journalist and student of the Middle East, I know I take every opportunity to chat up every cashier at whatever the liquor store, hoping the hairy Iraqi be willing to help me practice some Arabic... not exactly the attitude in Tel Aviv.
But it also helps explain
But it also helps explain the Wall. Like you wall in animals; wild dogs. Simply, the Israelis want a Jewish state, and their psychology has followed.
So the walls the US built in Baghdad, or the British in Northern Ireland, were to wall of wild dogs? It's so easy to switch from professionalism into emotional hyperbole. Of course, the rest of us are forced to consider the underlying cause of such rhetorical flourishes.
re: Comment by Alex
re: Comment by Alex Schindler
I think dispossession has a real effect on whether Iraqi Jews view themselves as "Arab Jews." Though my family was shunned by their Baghdadi neighbors and forced to leave, they were also looked down upon by the Ashkenazi in Israel. A major source of contention is that there's never been a non-Ashkenazi pm, with the highest-ranking Arab Jew Shaoul Mofaz. I think, when they emigrated, many Iraqi Jews heightened their religious identity and bade farewell to their true cultural identity, in part as an effort to be more accepted. I can't tell you how many pointless arguments about whether it was appropriate to listen to Oum Khaltoum that I had to endure. As if we're somehow giving aid and comfort to those who harassed and forced us from our country.
I know of many relatives who are ashamed that they're Arab/Iraqi, lying and saying they're of European or Israeli decent (though they're clearly too old to be Sabras.) Yet many, if they were truthful, would have loved to have been able to go back. Not necessarily to present day Iraq, but to the Iraq of sixty years ago.
Alex and Visitor 4:42 (were
Alex and Visitor 4:42 (were you also visitor 11:54?)
You may be interested in a book called "Not the enemy" By english-based Iraqi Jew Rachel Shabi. I went to the launch of it in Jewish Book Week in London last year.
She tends to echo Visitor 4:42's frustrations on the way Mizrahi Jews were treated in Israel, although its clear some in the audience from a similar background hated the Arabs (to put it bluntly) much more than any frustrations with Israel.
I'm not Jewish but a relative of mine is a Sephardic (his phrase) Jew from Egypt. He was basically kicked out by Nasser. He hates Pan Arab nationalism, but he has a lot of sympathy for the Palis, and loves a lot of stuff about Arabic culture, and certainly cuisine.
By the way, good post. I would love to check out Tel Aviv some time - mainly because I've heard it described as being similar to Beirut so many times...
Ramzi, Thanks, the book
Ramzi,
Thanks, the book looks really great.
It was so sad to see how much on an effect the book "Memories of Eden: A Journey Through Jewish Baghdad" had on so many of my relatives. It was like, for however briefly, it reminded them of where they came from. I've also never heard anyone object to calling us Sephardic, but I can see how it's not entirely accurate, much the like catchall term Arab.
Skimmed the comments and
Skimmed the comments and like the article itself very insightful and reflective of my own thinking behind this. In conversations on Israel/Palestine in college I normally refer to the mid-90 onwards in Israel as its "militant phase" a time of a noticeable swing away from peace and towards a general siege mentality.
As a student of International Relations and Sociology I consider the catalyst for this "militant phase" of Israel to be the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Naturally/understandably the collective trauma of the second intifada had a profound effect on Israeli society. Also you cannot rule out the role that the economic collapse of Russia in 1997 which brought a huge wave of Russian Jews into to Israel (many of them with very hardline views).
There are some comparisons that could be made to the effect 9/11 had on American society though I think the Israeli shift was much deeper.
How this effects counter-insurgency/general military preparedness of the IDF I'm not really an expert on but it is clear from the 2006 war in Lebanon, 2008 bombing or Gaza, the flotilla incident that it has negatively effected the quality of the Israeli military.
Do cops in Israel kick
Do cops in Israel kick bicyclists' front tires while riding?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/06/bicyclist-kicked-lapd-vide...
Police launched an internal investigation into the Friday night episode after a video circulated that appeared to show an officer kicking at a passing bicyclist during a protest ride against BP's role in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, said Cmdr. Andrew Smith.
Marty's comment should be
Marty's comment should be taken quite seriously...Andrew, glad to see you recognized it. It is my experience also, with my Israeli friends, that the suicide/homicide bombings changed then cemented the feelings of average Israelis, as well as the professional warriors, towards the Palestinians and Arabs. I hate to imagine how I would feel if the people from another neighborhood or bordering State started the suicide bombing tactic to attain their goals...might I feel like...If that is how it is going to be, let me kill them all before they kill my family....would I not then start the dehumanizing process to help me accomplish my goal of self preservation? The hopelessness of such a tactic and response.
I would argue that the
I would argue that the absence of the public relations-conscious and nuanced COIN tactics of the Second Intifada in recent IDF operations has been driven by the perceived failure in Lebanon in 2006. After that conflict we heard repeatedly from IDF leaders the opinion that Intifada duties had ruined the army and resulted in atrophy of conventional warfighting skills. IDF training and planning policies since have sought to reverse the trend. Cast Lead was the debut of the retrained IDF, and firepower and maneuver clearly took precedent over targeted "counterterror" raids or COIN. Cultural and political shifts in Israeli society may play a role in recent IDF behavior, but it seems more likely that the immediate cause is a culture shift within the post-2006 IDF toward an attitude that if it's in front of you, it's the enemy, and COIN is a bad word.
Yes, I agree IDF girls are
Yes, I agree IDF girls are beautiful. But more importantly they look good and feel comfortable wearing a Brazilian two piece in the beach. Arab women want to, I mean look at their lingerie stores forchrisakes, but their men would beat them silly if they went in the beach with some of their crazy lingerie designs (from Turkey no less).
If we can get the rest of their women to undress, like Fakih aka Miss USA, we will win. Make no mistake we will make sweet love to their women, one by one or 3 at a time, with or without hijab.
If a bunch of Bikini clad
If a bunch of Bikini clad IDF chicks fast roped on that boat, with some party music and some drinks, the outcome would have been completely different.
Zohan for the win!
Zohan for the win!
Zohan for President (of Gaza
Zohan for President (of Gaza Strip).
Make it like Copacabana and Ipanema, Zohan. We believe in you.
How much of the change in
How much of the change in Israeli tactics has been because the Palestinian tactics have adapted ?
Keep doing the same thing in the same way, the fox will be out-foxed.
Have to change your method sometime.
Americans wouldn't do that....Surge....Surge.
Why don't we all take a
Why don't we all take a Palestinian girl (or two) for a wife, and give the Muslims a real reason to blow themselves up. Love hurts!
Zohan's right (Adam
Zohan's right (Adam Sandler's movie, I mean), the Israelis should be breeding these Palestinians out.
V interesting discussion...
V interesting discussion... gotta love the Internet!
In trying to explain the Israeli actions, one should consider internal Israeli politics, the right-militarist coalition in power, and the "strategy of tension"... Comments go back to the second intifada, but recall that it was the visit of the the supreme right-militarist politician Ariel Sharon to the site of the Al Asqa mosque (which he declared sovereign Israeli territory!) that ignited the second intifada. He spoke there on a Thursday and then left, yet the IDF decided that it was a good idea to have the hated border guards stick around til the next day, so the Palestinians could throw rocks at them.... hmmmm. They responded with live fire... The use of Israeli snipers and helicopter gunships on the angry crowds over the next few days helped escalated things - - a few weeks later the suicide bombers started and a few months later General Sharon was elected Prime Minster.
It is instructive to read Walter Karp's excellent books about US political history and wars... esp the Politics of War about the Spanish American War. He points out that US domestic politics were a major factor explaining why the US pursued war, violence and escalation at various times: US political coalitions benefited. (I think Eisenhower's 1960 remarks bear on this as well...?)
The Israeli raid is being called a fiasco and "bungled," but it is playing really well in Israel...
see: Peres: World always against us
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3898758,00.html
...circle the wagons and rally around the flag. Does anyone think this will hurt Bibi and his gov?
PLUS: To the right-militarist-settler coalition: It has also had to wondrous effect of killing off any hope of the hated "peace process" where they may have to make concessions! Status quo.... double-plus-good!?
See also:
http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/06/the-flotilla-raid-was-not-bungled-the-i...
(snip): "An alternative plan that would have been likely to avert violence could have been set into motion. The Israeli Navy could have done what it had in the past and hijacked the aid ships without boarding them, then towed them to shore. However, the Rambo-style plan concocted by Netanyahu, his top aides and the Naval commander with the unfortunate nickname of “Cheney” made the killing of activists likely, if not inevitable.
Why didn’t Israel’s leaders choose to deal with the flotilla in a more judicious fashion? Were they that stupid, or just crazy? From the details of the plan it appears that Netanyahu and his cohorts had envisioned Entebbe Part Deux, a daring anti-terror raid that would lift the sinking morale of the Israeli public while intimidating Iran and the Arab world."
the U.S. has much to learn
the U.S. has much to learn from the Zohan.
I just googled "IDF girls"
I just googled "IDF girls" and was amazed at how beautiful these ladies were. I was expecting Barbara Streisand as Yentl meets Jimmy Kimmel's Jewish girlfriend, but IDF girls are HOT.
If we agree that the second
If we agree that the second intifada traumatized the Israeli population, imagine how a average 18year old in Gaza feels. Instead of suicidebombers they have had apache gunships and air-raids with varying intensity to deal with for the last 10 years. Not a week goes by without some agressive action. I would be donning my suicidevest myself under such conditions.
Perhaps you should graph the
Perhaps you should graph the percentage of your notebooks that's in Greek over time? I feel a CNAS working paper coming on!
Can CNAS do a paper (in
Can CNAS do a paper (in .pdf) explaining why IDF girls are hot and how their hotness contribute to Israel's overall strategy in Gaza. Also compare and contrast this rarely discussed natural resource to the wider fight against terror, ie why weren't the Israeli girls in the Dubai/Mossad fiasco hot?
Instead of a fast rope, that
Instead of a fast rope, that should have been a long stripper pole. With Zohan and a handful of IDF girls, that Flotilla would have been a fuckfest instead of a fiasco, right Mr. Ricks?
The Zohan is a must watch
The Zohan is a must watch for any respectable Israeli/Gaza expert or any blogger.
Re: The number of Nobel
Re: The number of Nobel prize winners subject
Ironic note : The only group to have handed Israel its behind on a plate, twice, is made up of the poorest. least likely of all Arab subsets to win the Nobel.
Zohan, you can join the
Zohan, you can join the pirates anytime.
Missing from this post and comments: Balance - what about Arab attitudes towards Israeli's, Muslim attitudes towards Jews since Medina about the 620s, Muslim attitudes towards Kuffar and Americans?
Why do they get a pass? Because it explodes the entire theory?
And why are the Israelis not allowed some measure of reciprocity? "The feeling is mutual" is a very old phrase.
The Israeli's aren't fighting COIN, except maybe against their own settlers. They're in an existential struggle, literally.
Let's wargame if they let the boats through - they become a flood, Turkey and the EU nations open consulates or embassies in Gaza, the right of return becomes a reality within Gaza and perhaps the West Bank as well...
They may well have considered the Exodus when they stopped the boat.
And the walls are for what walls exist for - to keep harmful intruders out. I've seen few houses in the 3d world of the middle class and up that didn't have walls. Most Arab villages in Iraq have walls. Supposedly in Afghanistan they build the wall before the house.
BTW the walls in Northern Ireland and Iraq BTW are to keep people separated - they're there to keep them from harming each other.
It's a shame that you don't
It's a shame that you don't delve into the dog's breakfast that is the Israeli-Arab conflict more often: This analysis is the best I've read yet. Good job, and thanks.
Grim stat: 1K fatalities in
Grim stat: 1K fatalities in Astan:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100530/D9G1297O1.html
Congratulations on the long
Congratulations on the long run of high quality comments! I'm just waiting for this to get linked by one of the big conservative or Zionist sites and see the responses then.
Speaking on the IDF's
Speaking on the IDF's handling of information (specifically of IDF bloggers) there's a very well-reaserched and written report (despite its dorky name) from the US Army's Center for Strategic Leadership called "Bullets & Blogs: New Media and the Warfighter." The report contains some excellent case studies derived from the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War. Andrew, if you haven't read this report I think it would be of interest to you.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21678220/Bullets-Blogs-New-Media-Warfighter
From the COIN perspective,
From the COIN perspective, this is the most important effect of the fiasco:
One of the primary rationales for the blockade offered by Israeli officials is the need to create a material and political gap between the West Bank, run by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, and Gaza, run by Hamas. And political surveys have shown a preference for Fatah and discontent with Hamas among Palestinians. But the latest events, the American officials say, have given Hamas a dangerous lift.
What would it take to convince Israel to pursue a strategy of persuading the Palestinian people to support more accommodating policies instead of just increasing the cost of being led by a government that does not?
Civilian neocons controlled
Civilian neocons controlled the U.S. military from 2001-2006 resulting in gross errors - torture was encouraged, Afghanistan was neglected (the neocons spent five years crowing about their 'success" in Afghanistan), and the insurgency exploded. Neocon projections of a few hundred American and a few thousand Iraqi casualties - the "liberation of France" image - turned out to be pipe dreams. Crony relationships in military and government contracting exploded, but results on-the-ground were poor and billions went missing.
Israeli politicians seem to play the same role today that neocons did in the U.S. during that era.
I like the Zohan effect.
I like the Zohan effect. Policy makers should seriously look into the Zohan.
I've been impressed by how
I've been impressed by how civil this comments thread has been. And the Zohan references are appreciated. By the way, Greg, I actually participated in the workshop that produced that report you linked to, but thanks!Lebanon w/ Hizbollah the
Lebanon w/ Hizbollah the clear winner, Dubai another victory of Hamas, now the flotilla fiasco,
we love to see the Goliath be humbled. All the David's in the world rejoice.
When's the next flotilla
When's the next flotilla leaving? I'm on it.
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