On the surface, two fairly similar operations. Cast Lead 22 days, 3 civilians killed, ground entry on the eighth day. Protective Edge – 29 days, 3 civilians killed, ground entry on the ninth day, but just look at the differences.
In Cast Lead, the ground entry was deep into the Strip, to the outskirts of Gaza City. Reports had already begun of Hamas militants shaving their beards, and the Israeli price was 10 dead soldiers.
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In Protective Edge, the ground entry was superficial, only two kilometers into the Strip, the price was 64 soldiers. In Cast Lead, there was talk of 700 Hamas members killed. In Protective Edge, it was probably more or less the same number. This means that from the ratio of our killed to their 70 in Cast Lead, we ended up with our killed to about 11 of theirs.
Look at Hamas too. In Cast Lead, it launched 39 rockets a day on average in the first week. In Protective Edge, it launched almost four times that, 144 rockets a day on average in the first week.
With Cast Lead, he paralyzed Israel up to the Ashdod-Ashkelon border. With Protective Edge, he has already affected the daily lives of residents of Tel Aviv, Sharon, Jerusalem, and even Haifa, two-thirds of the country.
In Cast Lead, as the operation continued, the rate of launch decreased significantly. By the third week, Hamas was already launching an average of 15 rockets per day, a decrease from the first week, which was also attributed to the successful ground operation.
In the fourth week of Protective Edge, Hamas launched more than in the third week, although a decrease of 32% in the daily average compared to the first week, but still an average of 97 rockets per day when the IDF has tens of thousands of soldiers inside the Strip.
Some would say that the reason for the differences is that Hamas has armed itself and strengthened itself in the five and a half years that have passed between the operations.
So first, we need to remember that Israel has also improved. In Cast Lead, there was no Iron Dome, and every alarm brought Eli Yishai down to the ground. In Protective Edge, the achievement we should really be proud of is the ability to almost ignore the rockets.
It is true that during Operation Protective Edge, offensive tunnels were created that were not in "Cast Lead," and justified praise is given to the fighters who fought to neutralize them without there being a structured method for doing so, but it is also impossible to ignore that almost half of the IDF casualties were killed during what appears to be suboptimal operational conduct.
Among other things, we lost soldiers in an unarmored armored personnel carrier, which was not brought into the Strip with Cast Lead, in a pillbox, which was previously unmanned, twice soldiers were killed in assembly areas, which were previously kept out of range of mortars, and two painful incidents occurred in unarmored vehicles that drove along the perimeter fence and encountered Hamas militants coming out of tunnels. In every war there are mishaps, that is clear and understandable.
In Cast Lead, soldiers were also killed by fire from our forces. It seems that this time there were a little more than one might have expected.
Politically, it is also unclear what achievements are involved. Hamas presented two central goals for the conflict: opening crossings and receiving salaries. It will probably receive both.
Israel presented a goal, which is hard to see how it could not be achieved – peace. Every conflict ends in peace.
In doing so, Netanyahu essentially signaled that he is interested in continuing the status quo with Hamas. This is a controversial decision. Can a normal Western country accept a status quo in which three times in six years a large part of the country is shut down for a few weeks? Is a status quo in which residents of the communities around Gaza shudder at every hammer blow something that should be fought to preserve?
Along the way, Netanyahu found himself in an unnecessary conflict with the US, after he chose to put the Secretary of State's proposal to a vote in the cabinet and humiliated him. Abbas's maligned reconciliation government suddenly became the key to resolving the conflict, and UN envoy Robert Serry, who had been threatened by the Foreign Minister with expulsion from Israel, became a key player in the humanitarian ceasefires requested by Israel.
Demilitarization, it almost goes without saying, will not come out of this conflict, and neutralizing the tunnels is an achievement that can be erased within a year, and that's before we even talk about the enormous damage suffered by the Israeli economy, the precedent-setting paralysis of a key part of Ben Gurion Airport's operations, and the struggle in the coming years with the various tribunals that will seek to punish Israel and its commanders for the hundreds of civilians killed in Gaza.
Under these circumstances, one really has to ask – what exactly is the great achievement?
From the website: http://drucker10.net. The text was broadcast as part of an article by Drucker in the main edition.
