Israel lessons learned from 2006

Jeff Jacoby:

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This time, Israeli prewar preparations were much more meticulous. Months were devoted to gathering detailed information on scores of Hamas targets, including training camps and offices, rocket launchers, underground bunkers, weapons-making sites, tunnels from Egypt, and the homes of terrorist commanders. Israel's military and political operations appear better coordinated than in 2006, and Israeli diplomats are making use of online weapons - a dedicated YouTube channel, for example - to get its message out.

But it remains an open question whether Israel's leaders have learned the most critical lesson of all: that genocidal jihadists and other mortal foes cannot be wheedled, negotiated, bribed, or ignored into quietude. In a war with enemies like Hezbollah and Hamas and the PLO - enemies explicitly committed to Israel's destruction - goodwill gestures beget no goodwill, and peace processes do not lead to peace.

The proximate cause of the fighting in Gaza was the sharp increase in rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli civilians after Hamas refused to extend its tenuous cease-fire with Israel past Dec. 19. But the deeper cause was the transformation of Gaza into an Iranian proxy and terrorist hub following Israel's reckless "disengagement" in 2005. Israelis convinced themselves that ethnically cleansing Gaza of its Jews and handing over the territory to the Palestinians would reduce violence and make Israel safer. It did just the opposite.

In 2000, Israelis had similarly believed that a unilateral retreat from southern Lebanon would deprive Hezbollah of any pretext for continuing its war against the Jewish state. But far from extinguishing Hezbollah's jihadist dreams, it inflamed them.

The hard truth is that no matter how much Israelis crave peace, they cannot achieve it through concessions and compromises and "road maps" - not when their enemies view such overtures and agreements as signs of weakness, and as proof that terrorism works. For 60 years, Israel has had to contend with the hostility of its neighbors and the heavy costs of war; its yearning for peace is understandable. But there will be no peace without victory, and no victory without fighting for it.

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When dealing with a nihilistic enemy it is wise to take him at his word on his long term intentions. While Israelis are coming around to this opinion, the rest of the world has not caught up. Some think some concession on Israel's part will lead to quite. All you have to do is listen to the Hamas conditions for a cease fire to understand how unrealistic that hope might be.

Some in the Muslim world allow their religious bigotry to overlook Hamas's transgressions, but others are starting to notice. It really could not be more clear than Egypt and Saudi Arabia have said. If Hamas had extended the cease fire and not gone on a rocket campaign there would be no war. The Saudi's still make the bogus claim that Israel has produced a massacre in Gaza. If that was Israel's intentions the death toll would be in the thousands and not a few hundred.