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Tags: Israel news

Proper disclosure

Regarding "Ever so politely," Haaretz Magazine, October 23

Dan Meridor speaks about a report he submitted to the cabinet before the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War, summing up the work of a committee that dealt with Israel's security doctrine. Meridor tells the interviewer that the panel focused on an urgent problem: the combination of high-trajectory weaponry and of territory, in Gaza and Lebanon, that was not controlled by "an orderly government." The innocent reader might understand from this that if the government had only taken that report seriously, Israel would have averted the mishaps and the failure of the Lebanon war.
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Proper disclosure also obligates Meridor to report on two of the conclusions of a committee that he headed, submitted to the cabinet before the Lebanon war: to cut the defense budget and to lower the probability that Israel would be involved in conventional war in the future. This led then-chief of staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz to reduce the Israel Defense Forces' land forces, especially the armored ones, and to invest vast resources in the air force, based on the mistaken doctrine that victory could be achieved by air power alone.

Ofer Drori

Jerusalem

No solution

The sober judgment of Dan Meridor, who is considered a moderate and a realist, leads to an unambiguous conclusion: There will be no Palestinian state as long as the Palestinians do not agree to a territorial compromise, to an end to the conflict and to surrendering the right of return. These concessions on their part will make our evacuation of territories possible.

The Palestinians are incapable of forming an agreed-upon government that will be ready and able to consent to a territorial compromise and put an end to the conflict.

Furthermore, Israel is not able to, and neither will it want to, carry out a mass voluntary or forced evacuation of 100,000 settlers "with determination and sensitivity" as it did in the Katif bloc. Hamas and extremist Islam have practically taken over the Palestinian street - something that prevents any agreement on a compromise and an end to the conflict with Israel. Most Israelis are opposed to the right of return and to total withdrawal to the 1967 borders; the two Palestinian conditions that prevent any compromise.

In these circumstances, we must come to terms with the fact that we will not reach an agreement on peace and security for Israel along with the establishment of a Palestinian state. Apparently, the present dispute does not have a solution at this stage, despite all the negotiations, conferences and good intentions prevailing since Oslo.

Mati David

Ramat Efal

No easy competition

Regarding "Passage to Suez," Haaretz Magazine, October 23

Benny Ziffer evaded combat service in the IDF during the War of Attrition. While I and my friends spent days and nights in bunkers under bombardment at the Suez Canal, in the Jordan Valley and on the Golan, he was enjoying the delights of serving in the "academic reserves." In order to justify this appalling conduct, Ziffer wildly deprecates the need for the War of Attrition and its achievements.

The truth is that this was one of the IDF's hardest and most heroic wars. It was no blitzkrieg like the Six-Day War, nor was it rich in forces and weaponry, like the Yom Kippur War. It was a nerve-racking trench war, in which the troops needed constant psychological and physical stamina.

Later on the Egyptians launched the surprise Yom Kippur War and caught the IDF unprepared. The determined stand of the Israeli troops during the War of Attrition and the amazing capability demonstrated in the Yom Kippur War proved to the Egyptians that we cannot be broken by military means, and brought about the peace treaty with them.

Avi Zeira

Katzrin
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