This is not an accurate description of the actions Friday. Apparently the Israeli military got beat by Palestinian guerillas, no Israeli civilians involved
You're right, the later reports show that the Palestinians do seem to have been aiming at the security forces, not the worshippers this time around, but three of the Israeli dead are still civilians.
jpost.com
Come on admit it. The Israelis got their butts kicked Friday
Yes, this seems to have been a successful ambush. debka thinks it was Hizbullah run, I'm not sure why. However, Israelis are unlikely to conclude from this attack that the conservative approach doesn't work, because the IDF had withdrawn from Hebron under US pressure a few weeks ago. They were trying for a rolling cease-fire there, a more liberal approach. So Israelis will keep concluding that they are safer while the IDF patrols the trouble spots. The numbers do back up this contention.
And the whole thing also reads on the issue of what an invasion of Baghdad would be like. Do we really want American soldiers to be shot down 12 at a time? Baghdad has weapons a hell of a lot better than those grenades and rifles that the Palestinians have. In addition, Iraq is a hell of a lot bigger.
By this logic, Afghanistan was a quagmire too. Oops, guess not. Nobody prevents the US troops from taking whatever action seems best to them. That does make a difference, both in what the US does, and in what their enemies expect them to do. |
