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Last update - 09:43 30/01/2007
Was it a war of choice?
By Amir Oren

Reports about the testimony of Chief of Staff Dan Halutz before the Winograd Committee have led to the resurfacing of the question regarding the campaign against Hezbollah during the past summer. Was it a war of choice?

Halutz restated what had been reported at the time of the Hezbollah attack, the abduction of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, and the rescue attempt, events that claimed eight IDF dead. The General Staff presented the political echelon with two options, and Defense Minister Amir Peretz, with the approval of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the ministers who are part of the defense committee, opted for the more ambitious one, which, as expected, resulted in an escalation, and against all expectations, lasted a month.

The disagreement between the two echelons, the army and the government, may focus on this eternal issue, of who recommends and who decides, who determines "what" and who proposes "how." But this is only an internal debate. On a broader level, as a state, Israel considered all the possible types of action, and decided that it would not show restraint, and also that it would not make do with a single day of fighting, in which the damage to both sides would be limited. On the face of it, this was indeed a war of choice.
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In practice, however, on July 12, 2006, Israel had no real choice. The move from passively sustaining attacks to going on the offensive was something it had to do. The moment Regev and Goldwasser were abducted, an event that followed the abduction of Gilad Shalit from Kerem Shalom on June 25, Israel and its leaders - Olmert, Peretz and Halutz, as one - had no real alternative to taking action. This was true regardless of how well the army was prepared, or of how effectively the military and diplomatic campaign were managed in the effort to have the best possible achievements. Restraint following the second abduction would have been interpreted in the Middle East simply as outrageous weakness, and would have invited further challenges.

The 1982 Lebanon War was a war of choice par excellence, involving an Israeli attempt to alter the regime and the situation in Lebanon. Unlike a war of choice, during the six years since the IDF pullout from southern Lebanon Israel adopted a strategy of choice along its northern front. This strategy involved a mistaken mix of defensive goals and defensive means, instead of defensive goals and offensive means, which would have been both wiser and justified.

When Israel opted to withdraw, the choice nominally included a built-in option for a future invasion. However, just as with the pullout from the Gaza Strip in 2005, the option was not a realistic one. The assumption was that the price of a major ground offensive would be higher than the cost of avoiding one.

The practical meaning of this was that it allowed Hezbollah to position itself along the border fence, to plan attacks and decide when to carry them out. The price for Hezbollah was that some of its outposts sustained shelling - most of which fell on the rocks around them. In Israel, this was called "containment," a generous way of describing what amounted to Hezbollah's success in having an increasingly stronger deterrent effect over Israel. The deterrent was partly based on Israel's concern that a strike against Hezbollah's leadership would result in attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets throughout the world, such as those against the embassy and the offices of the Jewish organizations in Argentina following the 1992 assassination of Abbas Musawi; and it was even more significantly based on the thousands of rockets that threatened northern Israel.

Hassan Nasrallah managed to convince Sharon and Olmert, Shaul Mofaz and Moshe Ya'alon, Peretz and Halutz, to hold out until the next blow and avoid initiating an operation. During these six years, 22 Israeli civilians and soldiers were killed in the North. In a meeting between Olmert and the General Staff last week, Major Generals Avi Mizrahi and Meir Klifi, former commanders of divisions 36 and 91, respectively, discussed former chief of staff Ya'alon's recent complaints that the "High Waters" plan, which involved a large ground offensive, was not initiated in July. Ya'alon, they noted, is ignoring his own refusal, when he was in the post, to carry out the same plan.

Successful or a failure - or somewhere between those two - this was a war of no choice. On the other hand, a war with Syria, if it is initiated by Damascus in order to break the diplomatic impasse to restore the Golan Heights in return for peace, will be a war of choice: a war for which Israel will be responsible, an unnecessary war, reckless even.
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  1.   the excellent amir oren 10:38  |  flashman 30/01/07
  2.   Of Course 10:39  |  Injured Lebanese 30/01/07
  3.   who is to blame for the mistakes 10:44  |  flashman 30/01/07
  4.   Read the end paragraph. 10:44  |  S 30/01/07
  5.   Any war can be a war of choice 10:45  |  Richard 30/01/07
  6.   the present transparency in the military 10:49  |  flashman 30/01/07
  7.   i have to say it is a pleasure to read the well informed 10:54  |  flashman 30/01/07
  8.   Choice of no consequence 10:54  |  Star of David 30/01/07
  9.   mizrahi and khalifi on yaalon 10:56  |  flashman 30/01/07
  10.   " Restraint following the second abduction etc"speaks for itself 10:58  |  PETER SM 30/01/07
  11.   Injured lebanese 11:01  |  Layla Sayedi 30/01/07
  12.   GOING TO WAR IN A KAYAK !! DI D NO ONE KNOW 11:01  |  paul harris 30/01/07
  13.   Israel made the choice to punish the entire country 11:12  |  Guy From NYC 30/01/07
  14.   we should all still be outraged that the soldiers are not back 11:24  |  paul 30/01/07
  15.   Gal From NYC is very smart 11:26  |  Richard 30/01/07
  16.   everything we do is choice 11:39  |  Atilla Karagozoglu 30/01/07
  17.   GUY from NY.It was south Beirut and South Lebanon Hisballaland 11:45  |  PETER SM 30/01/07
  18.   No. 13 Guy from NYC 12:01  |  tony fisher 30/01/07
  19.   unquestionably, this was a war of necessity 12:03  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 30/01/07
  20.   Evading responsibility 12:10  |  Spider 30/01/07
  21.   doing nothing would have 12:20  |  cool 30/01/07
  22.   This Lebanon war was planed by Barak 12:48  |  Steven 30/01/07
  23.   Spider, the military expert 13:33  |  Cockroach 30/01/07
  24.   The dark side of that war 13:49  |  Frank 30/01/07
  25.   flashman exagerates for effect - # 6 13:53  |  baraitot 30/01/07
  26.   baraitot"who can trust what you say" 14:11  |  flashman 30/01/07
  27.   Syria is about the bigger picture 14:22  |  Ronnie Wolman 30/01/07
  28.   baraitot it is problematic to rely on newspaper 14:25  |  flashman 30/01/07
  29.   Even Amos Oz supported the war! 14:26  |  Ronnie Wolman 30/01/07
  30.   baraitrot i was hoping you were right 14:33  |  flashman 30/01/07
  31.   ronnie wolman 14:38  |  haim lipschitz 30/01/07
  32.   #26 flashman 14:42  |  Hastaroth 30/01/07
  33.   history of lebanon war 1982 14:53  |  flashman 30/01/07
  34.   ronnie wolman 15:08  |  flashman 30/01/07
  35.   Was it a war of chice? Yes luxorious choice 15:10  |  Semone 30/01/07
  36.   Haim Lipschitz: Difficulties 15:11  |  Ronnie Wolman 30/01/07
  37.   It was a choice of self defense 15:22  |  Tamir Gaza 30/01/07
  38.   flashman`s "expert witness" 15:25  |  baraitot 30/01/07
  39.   Choice or no choice. What Did Israel Achieve? 15:29  |  Yaakov Sullivan 30/01/07
  40.   The war chosen 15:30  |  Mark Lincoln 30/01/07
  41.   Frank`s concerns 15:32  |  Ehud 30/01/07
  42.   Yaakov Sullivan and choice or no choice 15:45  |  Anat 30/01/07
  43.   response to S, what Syria was doing before 67 15:52  |  Bernie 30/01/07
  44.   Flashman: I read this in a report based on the IDF 15:56  |  Ronnie Wolman 30/01/07
  45.   Yes it was a war of Israel`s choice... 15:58  |  Stephen Murray 30/01/07
  46.   Lebanon made the choice to punish the entire country 16:07  |  topanga 30/01/07
  47.   Flashman: Addendum to the Golan 16:12  |  Ronnie Wolman 30/01/07
  48.   Anat, I could care less with whom you classify me #42 16:16  |  Yaakov Sullivan 30/01/07
  49.   Yaakov Sullivan: The Southern Republic of Hizbullah 16:17  |  Ronnie Wolman 30/01/07
  50.   Mark Lincoln: Bridges,Supply chains and the Alamo 16:28  |  Ronnie Wolman 30/01/07
  51.   # 11 Layla Sayedi @ Beirut 16:30  |  Joseph E . 30/01/07
  52.   Bernie #43 16:37  |  S 30/01/07
  53.   baraitot 16:46  |  flashman 30/01/07
  54.   ronnie wolman 16:52  |  flashman 30/01/07
  55.   ronnie wolman 16:56  |  flashman 30/01/07
  56.   ronnie wolman apologies if i test your patience 17:00  |  flashman 30/01/07
  57.   Flashman: They Cant have it both ways 17:13  |  Ronnie Wolman 30/01/07
  58.   A war of choice 17:21  |  Tosefta 30/01/07
  59.   FLashman: The Only Possible answer 17:22  |  Ronnie Wolman 30/01/07
  60.   Oren , an other reporter talking about irresponsible gamble 17:25  |  Joseph E . 30/01/07
  61.   Tosefta, Israeli second attack on Lebanon #58 17:31  |  Yaakov Sullivan 30/01/07
  62.   Wars or Modern Street Fights ? 17:40  |  Atilla Karagozoglu 30/01/07
  63.   OBSTINACY 17:42  |  Atilla Karagozoglu 30/01/07
  64.   War of choice? 17:45  |  Goldie Klugman 30/01/07
  65.   The forgotten option after Barak`s withdrawl in 2000 17:50  |  Tosefta 30/01/07
  66.   Attacking Iran (Yaakov Sullivan #61) 17:55  |  Tosefta 30/01/07
  67.   Tosefta on refueling airbases #66 18:12  |  Yaakov Sullivan 30/01/07
  68.   Actually... 18:22  |  Yosemite 30/01/07
  69.   # 41 Ehud: My concerns 18:32  |  Frank 30/01/07
  70.   Anat & Sullivan 18:33  |  Geula Hovav 30/01/07
  71.   Goldie Llugman 18:42  |  Labhras 30/01/07
 &n