Martin van Creveld, der berühmte israelische Militärhistoriker, ist mit der Gaza-Offensive zufrieden und glaubt, dass Israel seine Ziele erreichen könne. Die Fehler des Libanon-Kriegs von 2006 würden diesmal vermieden.
Was aber nun, da man mit Bodentruppen in Gaza steht?
„In the face of such resistance, the last thing the Israelis want to do is to barge down the alleys of Gaza, Rafa, and Khan Yunnis. Instead, it is a question of provoking the enemy to fire – coming just close enough to flush him out of his hiding places and bring him to battle. To accomplish this they must advance carefully and systematically, using every means; electronic intelligence, signals intelligence, whole arrays of unmanned airborne vehicles, sophisticated night vision equipment and possibly also Palestinian collaborators (human intelligence). Once the enemy has been identified they rely on their air force and infinitely superior artillery to blast away the Hamas fighters. To the Palestinians unlucky enough to get involved in the fighting the process is likely to be very costly – mais c’est la guerre.
For all the Israeli shortcomings that the 2006 war in Lebanon revealed, after five weeks of incessant pounding Hezbollah’s will was broken and it agreed to a ceasefire. This time around Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and Minister of Defence, Ehud Barak, have made it clear that they mean business; perhaps this explains why, so far, Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah has done nothing more than hold speeches.
Considering how much better prepared and organised the Israelis are this time around, there is good reason to hope that the result of the present campaign will be similar, namely an end to the rockets and the insertion of some kind of international force that will limit, if not prevent, Hamas‘ ability to rearm. Judging by the intensive and very successful reconstruction activity that has taken place in southern Lebanon, such an outcome can only benefit both sides.“