Observation: Israel lucky Majdal Shams was invaded today

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
15 May '11



Just as Israel was blessed by the fortuitous Second Lebanon War, we have been blessed today by the infiltration of the border near the Golan Druse village of Majdal Shams today.

It is the nature of the Israeli psyche that all the arguing in the world would not have convinced the Israeli brass and ex-brass now politicians that change was needed in the IDF.

This is, after all, a society where the common excuse for ignoring safety rules is that “nothing happened” even though the rules were violated.

So if not for the Second Lebanon War the IDF would today be only a shadow of itself in terms of critical ground force capabilities (tanks and other forces were being slashed), training (units didn’t know how to operate their weapons or had next to no ongoing experience using them) and battle operations (the emphasis on evacuating wounded not only hampered the missions – it turned out making evacuation harder).

And if today ended with only what transpired in the Gaza Strip and Lebanese border, there is every reasons to believe that the IDF would not be ready for what may come this Fall.

So we are indeed blessed.

Many years ago there was a line that for Israel “every test is a final exam.”

We are blessed that today we also have “pop quizzes” with considerably less critical consequences when we fail to do our best.

So while DM Ehud Barak may spin that he is not concerned by what happened, he also noted that the IDF will learn from the experience.

And indeed the IDF and the rest of the system will.

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.