Granted, only two and a half months have gone by since the end of the second Lebanon war, but we need no further perspective to grasp the full scale of its achievements. Already now, it is clear that it was a successful war - not only one of the most justified of Israel's wars, as was noted when it began, but also one of the most successful, as must be admitted at its conclusion. Only incorrigible defeatists and incurable doomsayers will fail to sing its praises. No wonder, then, that the calls for a state commission of inquiry now sound like the faint echo of a distant howling at the moon. Down with the critics!
Here is the story: The Lebanon war removed the realignment in the West Bank, in the name of which Kadima asked for the public's confidence and received 29 Knesset seats, from the national agenda. Let us be serious people, for a change, and accept the postwar reality with satisfaction: The realignment has been expelled from our lives for all time, just as the Egyptian mother and her little boy were expelled to wander in the desert. Good riddance to that can of worms. It would have created a terrible headache, and the ache might have been stronger than the head.
A smart war does not leave a vacuum. Even as it erases one agenda, it is already filling the empty space and drafting a new agenda that is far more desirable for Israel. Instead of uprooting what has been planted in Judea and Samaria, we are planting the uprooted - people and trees; instead of destroying communities, we are rehabilitating destroyed communities with great momentum; instead of investing in the territories for the sake of evacuation, we are investing in the Galilee for the sake of construction. The Holy One did right by us in granting us this war, which is enabling the government to reorganize its order of priorities. This is not the time for internal disputes; this is the time for unity in the ranks. For if not now, when?
The Lebanon war is granting us the opportunity to reap its profits on other fronts as well - another proven achievement. On our northern border, the Arabs' true intentions, of annihilating us, have again been revealed. Israel, of course, will not be able to agree to the creation of a similar threat in the Gaza Strip. Remember what Hezbollah did to us and do not forget what it is incumbent upon us to do to the Palestinian every day, including holidays. Strike at them and strike at them, for we have become fed up with their being there, and here. The lessons of Lebanon bolster our right and duty to kill Palestinians and not to rest, and it is only a matter of not very much time before we return to the Philadelphi Road, and the road will wag the Strip, which will soon be reoccupied completely. Not only is Ehud Olmert's next realignment a thing of the past; Ariel Sharon's previous realignment will be annulled.
Haaretz
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