Here is the
quote of the day from the big talkers in the IDF, issued by the IDF Spokesperson:
The Israel Air Force recently attacked four smuggling tunnels in the Rafah border area, in response to eight Qassam rockets and two mortar shells fired from the Gaza strip today, and to the ongoing firing of over 140 rockets, mortar shells and Grad missiles from the Gaza Strip since the holding of fire on January 18th. An additional smuggling tunnel was attacked earlier today.
As the sole authority in the Gaza Strip, Hamas bears full responsibility for all terror originating within its area of control. The IDF will continue to respond to any attempts to destabilize Israel's South.
Tough words instead of tough response to protect Israel's citizens.
A rule of thumb: when Israeli politicians or spokesmen talk tough bet the farm that it is just bluster and that their words will not be backed up by deeds.
For example, it was clear from the beginning that
the recent war in Gaza was just a pre-election political stunt. But for those that didn't catch it, they could have figured it out when Defense Minister Ehud Barak promised to fight to the "bitter end". Perhaps he meant until the bitter end of the election campaign? Regardless, the continued rocket fire from Gaza proves that end of the terror war against Israel is still nowhere in sight.
Many, perhaps, most of Israel's successful military operations were preceeded by secrecy, silence, even peace overtures. The Six Day War and the raid on Entebbe are two examples but there are many. Some such operations were followed by secrecy as well, as was the case in the
2007 Israeli bombing of the nuclear facility in Syria. In fact, it is probably true that some of Israel's best operations are ones that none of us even know about.
So why the bluster now?
This is obviously a game of make-believe, where the Army makes useless responses to show that is is "doing something". That is only slightly better than pretending that there are no attacks, or that they are not serious, or that we have to show "restraint", which was the government's approach before December.
It is better because it may do some damage to the enemy, and it would be much easier to switch from useless attacks to useful ones than from no attacks to real attacks. It is only slightly better though because for now it basically accomplishes nothing.
Perhaps our military leaders, like the rest of us, are sitting on their hands waiting for the next government to form. But will things change with the new government? Or will Binyamin Netanyahu do an about-face and tell us we will just have to live with the results of the failed policies of those he was elected to replace? He did that in 1996, when he suddenly accepted the Oslo process immediately after entering the Prime Minister's office, even though he had run on a platform opposing the Oslo Process and had been elected to stop it.
Time will tell.
