Olmert - Always a next time
צילום: AP
Our big talkers
We’re so lucky to have ‘next war,’ so our leaders can promise future victories
We’re so lucky to always have the “next war.” We were pounded this time around? No problem, next time we’ll pulverize them.
What would we do without the next war? How dry and boring would our lives be in the shadow of yesterday’s failure, without the ray of light promising tomorrow’s sweet victory? Just give us the opportunity.
There, “we won’t allow Hizbullah to control Lebanon,” said our Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, during a visit to the IDF’s Home Front Command headquarters. And if they don’t listen to us, the PM let us understand that we’ll hit them. The days of the great restraint are over, yes, that same restraint which up until now was the ultimate excuse to the question: How did we lose like that?
Next time, the prime minister made it clear, we will have no limits! That is, the fact that we targeted Lebanon with bombings of World War proportions, erased the Dahiya neighborhood in Beirut, and fired cluster bombs uncontrollably were all signs of restraint. Now, and here comes the promise-warning, we’ll go wild.
There’s no better time than the second anniversary of the previous war to say loud and clear that we are back not only to take our own destiny in our own hands, but also our neighbors’ destiny. It is possible, as the prime minister warned, that in the next war our largest cities will be hit. However, what’s really important is that we will decide for the Lebanese who their prime minister will be. We will decide who their cabinet members are, who they should elect, and who they should dump in the garbage bin of history.
We have experience. We did it 26 years ago. It didn’t work out that well last time? No problem, we’ll do it better next time. Just like we’ll decide for the Iranians what kind of weapons they are allowed to possess, just like we’ll decide for the Palestinians who they should be voting for, and just like we’ll decide for the Gazans what to do with Hamas. We’ll do everything with our power.
Yet we’re allowed to raise an eyebrow and wonder how the man who led us to the biggest war failure in our history allows himself, a moment before he turns into history, to make such a sweeping threat.
But why wonder about things that are beyond our comprehension. What’s important is that right about now Nasrallah must be digging up trenches in horror. After all, Israel will be taking care of business.
