Like most lefties he criticises while offering no alternatives.Barnea ,I think you would make a good lefty prime minister.I encourage you to put yourself forward now.Good luck.

Also he didn't take care of the Hezbollah and the Iran troops in the area, so in this moment the "political correct troops" could not help and the vision of the future for Netanyahu was only limited to the T.A. area...…..
Sad for all Israel.

Nice article, but the point needs to be made. Military studies of the 200 odd unconventional wars fought, all prove the same point. They can all be won or lost, just like conventional wars can. But the point to grasp is that terrorist groups are most emphatically not states with a defence force but are manned by volunteers who believe in a cause and believe they have a chance of winning. When they see the president of the country saying its fair to share the capital city with them, the supreme court and army defence force insisting they have legal rights, journalists generally supporting them, massive international support,-then your volunteer got soemthing to fight and die for. A terrorist war thus depends not on winning land, but on 'winning' belief. and trust.

PM "risks" soldiers in another "sensless" Gaza war, damn if the PM does NOT risk lives of "our CHILDREN" in yet another NECESSARY Gaza war!
The choice of critique is for Barnea to pick at will......
He may of course be right, but I'd rather hear it from somebody else.

"It's not true that Netanyahu has no policy, he does have one"

Avoid anything that could expose him and cause loss of political "likes"

Israel, Jews, security, social issues anything else is just a tool to stay i power

It's interesting that there has been so little comment from the the far right Netanyahu supporters in the last few days.

How they would love to jump to his defense as they always do. But in their minds has to be a raging question: why in hell has he humiliated his country and let the southern residents stew? Why have we, for the THIRD time now, been left still with a vicious barb, in the form of the Gaza Strip, at our side?

Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. If we smash them from the air, and level half of Gaza, we will be pilloried by the international community. If we try to avoid such maximum destruction and go in on the ground, the price will be in Israeli soldiers' lives.

This, to the people of Israel, is intolerable. The Six Day War convinced them that they are so militarily superior that they can finish off the enemy in a ridiculously short time, and with painful, but minimal casualties. The New Martyr Palestinian - one for whom death is nothing - has proved to be a very difficult fish. They don't care about dying, and their leaders have no qualms about sacrificing tens of thousands if necessary to score victories - even small ones - over their enemy.

Israelis cannot bear one death, let alone a few hundred, and absolutely not more than that. It's understandable. But it's our weakness against an enemy like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and, even, the PLO.

Netanyahu understands this very well. In a military campaign (as opposed to all out war) that exacts too high a price in Israeli lives, Israeli anger will be directed at him, no matter how necessary the action may be. So supremely confident are they in their military and technology-based superiority that they are totally unprepared for loss. Sacrifice is not an option.

And there lies the problem with Netanyahu, who believes he is invincible. Who believes there is nobody on the planet who can run a country like he can. Who believes that he has everything under control and can talk his way out of anything. The thing he fears most is loss of that control, loss of his own power.

And he, too, is not prepared to sacrifice his power by taking action that although for the good of tens of thousands of his citizens suffering the terror, the anxiety, the financial losses they bear in order to be the first line of defense against a vicious enemy just across the road, that will result in too many Israeli military deaths. Because it won't be the action he took but the loss of Israeli life that will end his power and his electoral career.

We see that now. Even the Kahane supporters who blindly wade in to back their idol, are angry that this round went to Hamas, that Hamas is laughing, mocking, dancing in the streets with their victory. Binyamin Netanyahu has left the Gaza dilemma open and unresolved because he values his own seat more than he values decisive action against a relatively small band of cut-throats on the other side.

He does nothing about Gaza because doing nothing - even if it means children cowering in fear in shelters a hundred times a day - keeps his lordship in the seat. As far as he is concerned, leave Gaza to the next generation, so long as he gets to breathe his last on his precious throne.

Bibi is the only one in the government that can save Israel from the disasters such as losing tens of soldiers to teach a group of barbaric savages a lesson.

It is sad for me to read so many negative stories about the damage that this Old Fashioned PM does to Israel. This man lives in the past, very old past, has not vision for the country and really believes he knows best. Ben Gurion thought so too, but he really knew what to do and what was right. He was also a modest man. So was Begin and few others. This PM does keep his promises, has done nothing for the poor, the soldiers, the young couples, the mentally and physically challenged, the Holocaust survivors and the list goes on and one, not to mention even the poor suffering residents in Tel Aviv South. Don't you see that it is time for him to go. Does not smart Israel have one, even one smart person that can do better than that?! I hope it has and the right person will rise above the crowed to do something good for the people of my homeland. Good luck.

what can one say about barnea--self hating, cynical, whatever.

yes bibi screwed up here just as he screwed up protective edge. do you think we want to go back to herzog and livni, 2 pacifist beilinists, or lapid, an olmert crone whose only grasp of reality are his karate lessons.

no, it would be worse. but you are correct about bibi. the problem all along is that bibi is a word man, a man of letters, a diplomat. he is a rank failure in security, he does not think or act like a soldier. he does not have a Stalingrad mentality which would be necessary to defeat Hezbollah. he runs and collapses at the first sign of trouble.his wife would be stronger than him. next to olmert and herzog, he is the weakest pm ever. but he deludes himself thinking he knows. he knows next to nothing.


so who is left who can take action-Bennett and feiglin are the most obvious replacements of Lieberman. katz erdan, shteinitz are jokes and know nothing weaklings.
bibi's endless calculations and machinations are bulls**t. the best thing he can do is take his wife and himself out of politics. he has damaged israeli deterrence. 2 words to bibi-get lost!

Bibi doesn't trust anyone around him, not his ministers, not his party, not his base. But he does trust Hamas, Hamas never disappoints. They provide him a smokescreen when he is being investigated, they provide the fear and hatred he needs to rule, they allow him to masquerade as Mr Security. And he repays their loyalty with millions of dollars, fuel, food, goods and services. Bibi might as well be Hamas's Procurement Dept, they've been in bed together for so long.

notsomanyachievmentsyahuu. It is all part of the political comedy and intrigue in getting or keeping a post. Let's vote for siren of international standing "sexy shaked"

... is a message to the World that Gaza is never going to surrender, no matter how many bombs fall on their heads, making Israel pay a price every day, until Israel sees that an "Honorable Peace" is in their best interest.

This Peace means the end of Greater Israel, and an end to the minority "Jewish State" dominating 6, 8, 10, 12 million Palestinians and outside Palestinian refugees.

All wars end, Israel must end their Vietnam War.

Every 4-5 years, the IDF and IAF must raze Gaza to stop the rockets and shootings. Gaza then quiets down for a while. Then, they become emboldened by the fact that the Israelis are leaving them alone, and they start with the rockets once more.

These are not rational people; they're suicidal idiots. Probably the best course of action is to decapitate the Hamas leadership, assassinate maximum Islamic Jihad members, arrest a few thousand thugs, and institute military rule. Never mind what the world says. They'll hate us no matter what we do.