IDF Chief Resigns

Today the Israel Defence Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz resigned. His resignation comes after the loss in the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006. Halutz is the first official to resign over the debacle that was the war, and certainly not the last. The war in Lebanon was originally started as a response to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers and this was the main reason for waging the war. the Israeli objectives of the war were 1) to get the kidnapped soldiers back, and 2) to destabilize Hezbollah and rid Lebanon of their influence. Neither of these objectives were met and if anything the war raised the awareness and the popularity of Hezbollah. On the Israeli side, the war proved to everyone that Ehud Olmert is not Ariel Sharon, and has no real idea on how to wage a war. The question now is, who was responsible for this embarrassing defeat? Halutz was the first Chief of Staff to have an air force background and this could be one of the reasons why the war was mostly fought unsuccessfully from the air. Other contributing factors to the defeat were the appointment of Amir Peretz to the post of Defence Minister by Ehud Olmert. This was such an odd move by the PM. The nature of Israeli politics are such that leaders from parties are given high profile cabinet positions in order to support the ruling party's coalition government. So in this context it does make sense that Paretz would get a high profile position, but the Defense portfolio is one that doesn't fit him. He doesn't have a military background and has proven that he doesn't know much about war and how to fight it. Ehud Olmert is the other major contributor to the lose of the war. Olmert also doesn't have much military background and although he has been in the government for a few years he really was just Ariel Sharon's sidekick that had to take over once Sharon got sick. The outcome of the war will be a shift back to the right in Israel and possibly the return of Bibi Netanyahu to the PMO. There is no way that Olmert can win another election. his ratings are extremely low and 85% of Israelis think that his government is corrupt (the pending corruption charges don't help this). shift to the right in Israel could see the reoccupation of the Gaza Strip (I think this is on the extreme side) there would be almost no progress on the peace process and the possibility of Israel intervening in Iran will definitely increase. Needless to say a shift to the right would be detrimental to the Palestinians (as was Netanyahu's term as PM in the 90s), and to Israelis who are sick of losing wars and seeing their civilians dying.

Currently listening to "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions" by Bruce Springsteen