I would not have imagined that I'd share an article written by an Israeli general, but the man makes sense here and shows also what a crazy society this is. You were told that Israelis are practical and clever. Behold here what shallow, sheepish fools they are. And also, behold here how little they care about each individual soldier, despite what you were told all these years.
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I will try here to address mainly the public that behaves like a dumb herd, its feet stuck deep in the swamp and its eyes incapable of seeing one meter ahead. It is living the moment, cheering and saluting blindly at local successes that unfortunately do not change the bitter direction in which we are headed in the near and distant future, and is giving the government and its leader the support to lead the citizens of Israel into a dead end, like so many sheep following the bellwether. This group of cursing loudmouths will be the first to raise the white flag when it realizes its situation.
Two expressions come to mind in this regard – "blind as a bat" and "Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise" – though, unfortunately, this herd of fools does not hold its peace, and its foolishness is evident everywhere. It is joined by military correspondents and commentators, playing into the hands of the political and military top brass and throwing sand in the public's eyes by presenting an image of reality that is as far from what is really going on as east is from west.
Benjamin Netanyahu is a modern-day Bar Kochba, leading us to disaster just as Bar Kochba did. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered then, and the rest went into exile. Because of his desire for political survival, Netanyahu adopted the messianic views of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, and he does their bidding. These three zealots are leading us to a continuing war of attrition that is destroying the economy, national resilience, relations with the world and national security.
A war that achieved no goal – the release of the hostages, the return of displaced people to their homes, the collapse of Hamas and the defeat of Hezbollah. The longer this war of attrition goes on, the farther we are from achieving the original goals of the war.
We had better begin to realize: We cannot defeat Hamas, we cannot defeat Hezbollah, we cannot defeat the Houthis and Iran. Continual warfare will defeat us. We are losing the world, we are losing the economy, we are losing the ground-into-dust military and we are losing out national and social strength to the point of a possible civil war. When we do realize that we can neither eradicate terrorism in the Middle East, nor can we defeat the Arab nations, it may be too late.
The correct thing to do will be to stop the war, that is doing us by now much more harm than good; to release the hostages; to stop our soldiers falling in vain; to return the displaced people to their homes; to rebuild the military so that it is capable of attacking and defending the country against growing threats; to mend relations with the world; to rebuild the economy, as well as our national and social strength; to build national capabilities with the help of the U.S. and other friendly countries, and to make alliances that will allow us to live in our country for many years to come, so we will not have to say, "We have won the war but lost our country." Unfortunately, many of us are not far-seeing, and fall prey to clichés. We must all disabuse ourselves of clichés and act soberly, in a way that will allow us to live in Israel for many years to come.
Maj. Gen. (res.) Itzhak Brik has served as commander of the 36th Division, the Southern Corps (441) and the military colleges. He also spent 10 years as the army's ombudsman.
Israeli Soldiers Are Falling in Vain - Opinion - Haaretz.com
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