Over the upcoming weekend we shall be marking two years to the Second Lebanon War.
Did I say “marking”? I am not talking about holding festivals or hearing violin sounds. All we shall have is silence and the “El Maleh Rachamim” memorial prayer at military and civilian cemeteries marking the fact that two years have passed. It has been two years.
Had it been possible to turn back the clock to the day before the war, July 11th, 2006, there would be many political and military leaders in Israel, both past and present, who would love for this to happen. Oh, how badly they would want this to happen.
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Indeed, in almost every possible way, the decision to embark on the Second Lebanon War was a case of completely flawed judgment.
In any case, the damages caused to the State of Israel and
to the Israel Defense Force in this war are immense; most certainly, the 158 bereaved families who lost their loved ones paid a terrible price. And what for? And why?
But perhaps, some people will say, it is a good thing that this war happened the way it did: Perhaps, once and for all, many civilians and military officials in the State of Israel realized that we are not superior to anyone.
Maybe they realized that we do not have the best army in the world, that our political leaders are not a model of perfection, and that we, yes us, may even lose, or fail, or simply fail to win.
Perhaps we deserve this blow that we suffered in the war, but why was it the fault of the victims?
It has been two years since the war broke out. Two years have passed already. May we use the upcoming weekend as an opportunity to think about the State of Israel’s place in the world, and about the IDF’s condition.
After all, the needless Second Lebanon War did not push the next war further away. Indeed, the opposite may be true.
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