Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Israel Finally Reasserts Willingness to Defend its Borders

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/07/08/israel-reasserts-willingness-to-defend-borders/
In his takedown of the UN report on Israel’s handling of a mass
infiltration attempt from Lebanon on Nakba Day (May 15), Max correctly
argued that Israel’s priority should be reestablishing deterrence. But
in that regard, Israel’s handling of this incident marked a milestone
– not only in the narrow sense of being effective (the Lebanese border
stayed quiet on Naksa Day three weeks later), but in a far more
important sense: For the first time in years, Israel openly declared
its willingness to defend its borders.
Under two successive prime ministers in the last decade,Israel
effectively gave up on defending its borders. First came Ehud Barak’s
refusal to respond to Hezbollah’s cross-border kidnapping of three
soldiers in October 2000, just five months afterIsrael’s UN-certified
unilateral withdrawal from every inch of Lebanon.  Granted, the second
intifada had erupted a week earlier, so the army had its hands full.
Nevertheless, this sent a dangerous message: Israelwas either so
scared of Hezbollah, or so tired of war, that having left Lebanon with
its tail between its legs, it now wouldn’t even defend the
internationally recognized border to which it had withdrawn.
Far worse, however, was Ariel Sharon’s repeat of this behavior
following Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from every inch of Gaza in
2005. By then, the intifada was largely under control, so military
action was certainly feasible. Thus as Dan Kurtzer, then America’s
ambassador to Israel, told  the Jerusalem Post last month, he expected
“a very serious Israeli response to the first act of violence” from
Gaza and told Washington to “be ready to support it,” since the
pullout had removed the justification for cross-border violence. Yet
Sharon never responded to the ensuing rocket fire from Gaza, and
Kurtzer, despite being a vocal dove, was “very surprised” – because
this sent a dangerous message:
    “All of a sudden people got acclimated to the idea that there can
be rocket fire,” he said. “From there it was just a matter of degree:
from one rocket a week, to one a day; from one a day, to one and hour
– so it escalated.”
Once again, Israel had effectively proclaimed that it was so scared of
Hamas, or so tired of war, that it wouldn’t even defend the
internationally recognized border to which it had withdrawn.
Sharon’s successor, Ehud Olmert, finally started reversing this trend:
He responded to a cross-border raid in 2006 by launching the Second
Lebanon War. But even then, as Britain’s Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
perceptively noted last month, Israel’s PR focused on the three
soldiers Hezbollah had kidnapped rather than “the battle for the
country’s existence” – i.e. the need to defend the internationally
recognized border to which it had withdrawn. Israel still felt
uncomfortable asserting its right to defend its borders.
But on Nakba Day, Israel finally said openly it was ready to defend
its borders by force – and proceeded to do so. And it thereby took an
important step on the road to restoring its deterrence.

LOL. Come se fino adesso avesse lasciato i confini aperti...che
patetici buffoni

 patetici buffoni
Vabbč, č "Commentary"...
-- 
Namib
"La force ne fait ni raison ni droit ; mais il est peut-ętre impossible 
de s'en passer, pour faire respecter le droit et la raison" (Saint-Just)

  (Saint-Just)
noto, tra l'altro, per le tasse particolarmente esose imposte nel 1793
agli ebrei di Strasburgo. Deve trattarsi di una tradizione francese.