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Last update - 10:30 27/07/2007
Bunkering the country
By Yoel Marcus

Ehud Olmert was right when he said at a cabinet meeting this week that "we are a country that has been fighting for its life since the day it was born, and has invested its all in winning on the battlefield, not bunkering itself to death."

Israel is indeed the only country in the world that has been attacked by its neighbors non-stop for its entire 60-odd years of existence. We have had short wars, like the Six-Day War, and long wars, like the two intifadas, the second one waged chiefly on the home front.

The most tragic of our wars, the Yom Kippur War, in which most lives were lost on the battlefront instead of the home front, led to peace with Egypt and Jordan. Actually, our most celebrated war, the Six-Day War, was the most risky for the home front. Few people remember that in 1967 the air force sent its entire fleet to carry out a surprise attack on Egypt, leaving all of six planes to defend the home skies.
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Sderot has been living for six years under a barrage of Qassams - rockets too primitive to be knocked out by our state-of-the-art anti-missile systems, but pretty noisy. Sometimes they hit the target and sometimes not, but they have made life hell for Sderot's residents, who certainly deserve better protection.

The 4,000 missiles Hezbollah fired at Israel during the failed Second Lebanon War, and Iran's threats to wipe us out, have sent the home front into a frenzy of bunkering and shelter building. The last time Hassan Nasrallah crawled out of his secret bunker for a breath of fresh air, he declared he had long-range missiles that could reach every corner of the Israeli home front. Nonsense, says army intelligence.

A government that includes three former defense ministers and two former chiefs of staff has enough clout to warn Nasrallah that for every missile fired at Israel, 10 will be lobbed at Beirut. It is no accident that Big Mouth Nasrallah hardly ever pokes his nose out of that bunker of his. He knows he's a dead man as far as Israel is concerned.

Missile-proofing the whole country is a deviation from Israel's basic strategic principle of moving the war quickly to enemy territory. It is a sign of cowering and hunkering down, a sign of fear, of burying ourselves in the "trenches of our lives," to quote the Israeli poet Natan Alterman. In practice, Israel is not digging trenches for the next war, but exploring ways of winning it. Offensive strategies are on the drawing board, both political and military. Not fences, not walls, not giant public shelters, but stepping out and taking actions that we initiate. Initiation, not retaliation.

Moshe Dayan used to say that Israel could not protect every pipeline, but it could exact a price from those who damaged it, on their turf. In a war on terrorist organizations, we need to sit down and plan offensive tactics that will make them lose their cool.

Last week, there was a summit in Damascus that appeared to be a success. Israel's surprising response was to declare an immediate campaign to upgrade the protection of the home front. You can't bombproof a whole country. You can't pad every house in reinforced armor and build underground shelters for the whole population.

During the Gulf War, we all donned gas masks, grabbed our atropine syringes and sat in reinforced rooms in our homes with the doors sealed shut with masking tape. Lucky for us, no chemical warhead was fired and the damage caused by the old missiles was minimal - 39 Scuds left one person dead.

Israelis love victories. They are not big fans of hiding underground or behind protective walls. In principle, there has to be some kind of clear policy about what should be done in the event of a massive attack on the home front. With the major league wackos, we have no problem. If you shoot, we shoot back with the most sophisticated weapons we are capable of producing.

Protection of the home front on a massive scale will require endless sums of money and may not always be effective. This is particularly true for terror attacks and Qassams fired at Sderot and the settlements around Gaza. Miracles don't happen every day, like a crying baby being taken out of its crib two minutes before a Qassam lands on it.

When we start negotiating with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, it will be his responsibility to halt the Qassams. From our standpoint, a launched Qassam, even if it doesn't kill anybody, is the same as a Qassam that kills a whole crowd. In the end, whatever Abbas can't do, will be done by us. And when that happens, the problem of protecting the home front will be entirely theirs, over in Gaza.
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  1.   Israel 10:39  |  Hannah 27/07/07
  2.   a fair warning by Yoel Marcus 10:57  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 27/07/07
  3.   I don`t get it 11:29  |  Bandar Michaels 27/07/07
  4.   Building a Home and not a Shelter 11:49  |  Tzfonit 27/07/07
  5.   To Yoel Marcus 12:03  |  TonyL 27/07/07
  6.   And they took the land that the lord had given to them 12:38  |  Fritz 27/07/07
  7.   Are we for a suicide exercise ? 12:56  |  Akram Zekaria 27/07/07
  8.   Fritzi wants Israelis to settle in Germany,he`d like to be an ûbe 13:31  |  Absolute Sweden 27/07/07
  9.   THE US DOESN`T LET US SMASH THE ENEMY OUT OF EXISTANCE 13:34  |  don 27/07/07
  10.   Israel must take battle to Iranian front 13:41  |  Jonathan S 27/07/07
  11.   bandar michaels - 2. attempt 13:46  |  saul a. readner 27/07/07
  12.   To #3...Jew hating rhetoric doesnt help 14:08  |  stifffler 27/07/07
  13.   Israel is indeed the only in the world that still occupy PA 14:24  |  Tamir Palestine 27/07/07
  14.   The only victory in vendetta is mutual victory for BOTH sides! 14:25  |  Ivar 27/07/07
  15.   Jonathan S Advocates Wars from Germany 14:26  |  just a question 27/07/07
  16.   CHEAP CAN BE EXPENSIVE 15:08  |  Ian 27/07/07
  17.   You must remember Bandar... 15:27  |  Walter 27/07/07
  18.   And the Next War Will Bring? 15:27  |  Yaakov Sullivan 27/07/07
  19.   OCCUPATION-SHMOCUPATION,RETAKE GAZA,W.BANK,LEBANON.&LIVE IN PEACE 15:39  |  VOICE of MOSHIACH))) 27/07/07
  20.   Israel is the Palestinian homefront 15:48  |  Tim 27/07/07
  21.   tamir palestine 16:07  |  saul a. readner 27/07/07
  22.   Yoel, I Wish You Luck 16:17  |  Tony Anthony 27/07/07
  23.   #14 if this is the only ticket ivar im not riding 16:21  |  victor hardman 27/07/07
  24.   Tzfonit #4- Foaming 16:25  |  GABE1 27/07/07
  25.   #17 Israel attacked Egypt in 1956 and... 16:25  |  Jens 27/07/07
  26.   careful... 16:35  |  ravi 27/07/07
  27.   jens 17:00  |  saul a. readner 27/07/07
  28.   Separate Leaders from People 17:00  |  See the Truth 27/07/07
  29.   Yoel Marcus 98% right 17:01  |  Chick 27/07/07
  30.   ivar 17:02  |  saul a. readner 27/07/07
  31.   Yeah! Another 60 years of wars! 17:15  |  Pablo B 27/07/07
  32.   Little Jens, from Denmark,Asma Abdul,your SF-Parlament candidate 17:19  |  Absolute Sweden 27/07/07
  33.   The same idiotic thinking 17:19  |  Mark Lincoln 27/07/07
  34.   Tamir Palestine 17:25  |  Shepherd 27/07/07
  35.   Make the Arabs hesitate 17:37  |  Mike 27/07/07
  36.   saul a reader 17:48  |  Tamir Palestine 27/07/07
  37.   I am afraid Marcus represents the typical Israeli leader 18:12  |  Tosefta 27/07/07
  38.   Bunkering the country? 18:26  |  Otto Rand 27/07/07
  39.   Voice of Moshiach Misleads Once More 18:27  |  Isaiah 27/07/07
  40.   jens - 2. attempt 18:32  |  saul a. readner 27/07/07
  41.   ivar - 2. attempt 18:33  |  saul a. readner 27/07/07
  42.   Lincoln`s illusions 18:34  |  peter 27/07/07
  43.   tamir palestine, again 18:47  |  saul a. readner 27/07/07
  44.   arabist apologist advises hizbullah 18:51  |  peter 27/07/07
  45.   To Tosefta 19:02  |  Otto Rand 27/07/07
  46.   Tim#20 - You assume too much 19:08  |  William 27/07/07
  47.   To Mike #33 19:10  |  Otto Rand 27/07/07
  48.   Mike#31 - you are sooooo right 19:14  |  William 27/07/07
  49.   ok Shepherd you are good boy 19:16  |  Tamir Palestine 27/07/07
  50.   Tosefta#35 - there is no proof to your statements 19:17  |  William 27/07/07
  51.   Saul, diehard bitterness only increases with the Occupation 19:22  |  Ivar 27/07/07
  52.   Tamir#34 - 60 years is a long time 19:22  |  William 27/07/07
  53.   Tamir # 34 19:33  |  ChanahS 27/07/07
  54.   Tamir # 34 By the way 19:34  |  ChanahS 27/07/07
  55.   winning the peace is hard 20:05  |  Gretch 27/07/07
  56.   National defense requires a balanced approach 20:34  |  Voice of Reason 27/07/07
  57.   tim....I think it`s their fault. 21:09  |  maria 27/07/07
  58.   #49-Ivar puts the cart before the horse 21:12  |  peter 27/07/07
  59.   Sullivan, haven`t you spit at us, Jews, enough today? Do you also 21:14  |  Anat 27/07/07
  60.   ivar 21:35  |  saul a. readner 27/07/07
  61.   To Gretch #53 22:02  |  Otto Rand 27/07/07
  62.   Perfidious Ivar would never dream abut "single state" with the Ru 22:10  |  Absolute Sweden 27/07/07
  63.   Consistency (Otto Brand #43) 22:33  |  Tosefta 27/07/07
  64.   Read a little, and figure out the rest (William #48) 22:43  |  Tosefta 27/07/07
  65.   CLOSER !? 22:46  |  emad matahin 27/07/07
  66.   ----Abbas can`t come thru--- 22:54  |  Gary Pineda 27/07/07
  67.   Otto#59 - Re: Gretch - I beg to differ 23:27  |  William 27/07/07
  68.   `57" Anat re your post to Yaakov Sullivan. 23:32  |  Labhras 27/07/07
  69.   `48" William 23:39  |  Labhras 27/07/07
  70.   Israelis are not big fans of hiding underground or behind 23:46  |  lakshmi 27/07/07
  71.   Best Defense is well timed offense: this is not well timed 00:40  |  bernard ross 28/07/07
  72.