Wednesday, April 1. 2009
Israel National News reports that Dr. Shmuel Gordon, a Hebrew University lecturer who specializes in the process of decision-making, asserts that Israel repeated the same mistakes in Operation Cast Lead that it had made in the Second Lebanon war:
Operation Cast Lead was a failure and a waste because the government repeated the same mistakes it made in the Second Lebanon War by not explaining clear objectives.
He predicted it is only a matter of time before Israel will be forced to conduct another campaign to stop attacks on Israel. However, he advised that next time, Israel must establish the objective of taking over the Philadelphi smuggling route and stopping the flow of weapons into Gaza.
“We will have to go in to Gaza because have no choice... We have to be prepared to take over the Philadelphi smuggling route, which can be done in one day. The objective is to stop the smuggling of arms and explosives..."
He disagrees with the common view that Israel learned lessons in Lebanon because it lost relatively few soldiers in Gaza.
“What did we learn from Lebanon? In both wars, we started with a strong aerial bombardment to create a good impression...” but left with the same situation as before, he maintains. Dr. Gordon explains that rocket attacks continue, kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit remains captive and Hamas retains the same demands it made before, for the opening of Gaza crossings.
Hamas achieved its two objectives of preserving its political and military organization and continuing to rule in Gaza, said the researcher, a reserve colonel in the IDF. A lecturer at Hebrew University, he has published two books, one of them recently published and covering the decision-making process in the Second Lebanon War...
Dr. Gordon maintains that if the Olmert administration had ordered the IDF to stop the campaign after two days, "the results of the counterterrorist operation would have been the same as today - with Shalit remaining in captivity while rocket attacks and the smuggling of weapons continue."
Instead, Israel withdrew from Gaza while depending on the Western world to stop smuggling of weapons. “The IDF is the only body that can do it,” he said in the interview...
He recalled that Israel has a long history of stopping military operations only after being pressured by the international community...
He said the 2006 Second Lebanon War was a failure, with Israel sending ground troops into Lebanon, losing more than 100 soldiers, failing to bring back kidnapped IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev and winning no positive results.
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