The Second Lebanon War seems to have thrown almost everybody into a state of confusion. All of a sudden we realize that the home front is vulnerable and insufficiently protected. There is talk of spending billions on shelters for all and exotic missile systems to intercept incoming missiles. A vision is being propagated that someday all Israelis will be fully protected - shelter over their heads and an umbrella of missile interceptors that will knock down anything coming at us.

Conferences are being held on how the home front will be sheltered and who will be protected and how all this will be paid for. Orders have already been placed for the development of horrendously expensive missile interceptors. The Meridor committee, charged with examining Israel's defense doctrine, is calling for new strategic thinking, and the addition of a fourth element - defense - to the conventional Israeli strategic triad of early warning, deterrence and decisive victory. While all this is happening, Sderot keeps getting its daily dose of Qassams, and its residents are being told that there is no magic solution to their troubles. In other words, they better get used to it. Hezbollah has not only handed Israel a defeat on the battlefield, it has also totally confused us, giving birth to mistaken thinking, which if adopted, may very well lead to another defeat in the next round. Another victory for Hezbollah.

So what's new here? That civilians might be at risk during a war was fully appreciated by David Ben-Gurion many years ago. He would not begin the Sinai Campaign 50 years ago until arrangements had been made for the French Air Force to keep the skies over Israel clear of Egyptian aircraft. It appears that today's Israeli politicians and the "new strategists" have forgotten Ben-Gurion's credo - that the civilian population must first be protected.