In the East, nothing new 
On 20 March 2002, a year to the day before the coalition forces led by the United States invaded Iraq, Professor Martin van Creveld
gave an interview
Jennifer Byrne U.S. network ABC. Professor van Creveld, polémologue, military historian, teaches at the Hebrew University Jerusalem. He is the author of Supply and War
, (1977), Command and War (1985), Technology and War (1988) and The Transformation of War
, (1991).
In this interview, Professor van Creveld expressed the view that the Israeli armed forces, despite their power, would inevitably lose against the Palestinians. He explained that if a strong power struggle a low power, this is a matter of time before that becomes very low level. That's what happened to the British in Palestine, the French in Algeria, Americans in Vietnam, the Soviets in Afghanistan and in other situations too numerous to count.
The explanation is that if you're strong and you're fighting a low, you're a villain if you kill him, otherwise, you're an idiot if you are killed. This situation is lose-lose. When the strong fighting the weak, all he does is criminal. Lao Tzu said, there are 2400 years, a "sword dipped in salt water will rust. This is only a matter of temps.Et Professor van Creveld concluded that Israel has no military solution to its problems:
_Byrne: What Does The Israeli army options Have, do you think?
_Van Creveld: Nothing Will Work.
_Byrne: Nothing at all? Do You Think There's no change of strategy?
_Van Creveld: No. There Is One Thing That Can Be Done - And That Is To put and end To The situation whereby we are the strong fighting The Weak, Because That Is The Most stupid situation in anybody Which Can Be.
And Professor van Creveld suggest his solution to solve the Palestinian problem:
° ° · Wait a situation favorable
° ° ° to what it takes to restore a balance of power between the Palestinians and us;
° ° carry off 90% of the causes of the conflict by withdrawing from occupied territories;
° ° · Build a wall between us and them, so high that even birds could not cross it. ________________________________________
Comments: The idea of unilateral withdrawal from the occupied territories and the construction of the wall has its way. Unfortunately, restoring a balance of power between Palestinians and Israelis could not make its way into the Israeli public, probably too insecure to address them. Thus, the extremist political forces in Israel are returned to the military option, especially in Gaza where the Israeli army is trying to disgrace himself.
________________________________________________
photo: Martin Van Creveld, Arnon Grunberg by
.
NB I wrote this post for the first time
July 23, 2006. In the East, therefore, nothing new. We will probably change the Likud for Kadima in the elections on February 10
, but it will be even smaller parties Orthodox, Zionist and nationalist reactionaries who will waltz in the ruling coalition to suit their whims. In the East, for now, nothing will change.
Except that there's now the Obama factor. He decided to deal with the Middle East in its first week in office. A good point. Then he appointed George
J. Mitchell as
special envoy of the United States, the same mediator who many attribute the success of the negotiations that led to the conflict in Northern Ireland. An excellent point.
