Israel's leaders understand...they worry that Washington doesn't get it

[dajoki]

http://www.forward.com/articles/8176

Editorial
An Honorable Exit
July 28, 2006

It's hard not to identify with the congressional Democrats who protested this week against the planned Capitol Hill appearance by the prime minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki. The Iraqi visitor had just gotten through a White House press conference, where he condemned Israel's anti-terrorist action in Lebanon as an "aggression." (In Baghdad a week earlier, he had called it a "criminal aggression.") The very next day, he was to address a rare joint session of Congress and ask America to continue pursuing its own anti-terrorist action in Iraq. America has lost nearly 2,600 soldiers in Maliki's country over the past three years, fighting on what we're told is one front in a global war against terrorism. Israel is currently battling on what is undeniably another front in that very war. Whose side, Democrats were asking, is Maliki on?

It's a fair question, but sadly beside the point right now. When you're flat on your back, you can't be too choosy about who your friends are, and America — it's no secret — is flat on its back in Iraq these days. We're bogged down in a war we can't win and can't get out of. We misjudged our foes' capabilities and overestimated our own. We have alienated our allies and inflamed much of the rest of the world, and as a consequence we've sharply narrowed our short-term options and undermined our leadership position on the broader world stage. Perhaps most alarming, we have unintentionally unleashed our most dangerous adversary, the Islamic Republic of Iran, by eliminating its worst enemy, the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein.

At this point, whatever hopes America may still harbor for an honorable exit from Iraq rest on the slim shoulders of Nouri al-Maliki. He happens to be a Shi'ite Muslim, like the mullahs in Tehran and the Hezbollah rocketeers in Lebanon, so it's not hard to guess where his gut sympathies lie. But right now, he's the best we've got.


There is a cautionary lesson for Israel in all this. Although the war in Lebanon is less than three weeks old, it is already clear that things are not turning out the way Israel planned. Like America in Iraq, Israel misread the capacity and the will of its adversaries. Like America, Israel began from a starting point of worldwide sympathy because of an outrageous attack on its soil, but now sees that sympathy dissolving before its eyes. It set itself a goal, the elimination of Hezbollah as a fighting force, that depends in large measure on factors beyond Israel's control. Now it finds itself in an unexpectedly tough battle that it cannot afford to lose — but may not be able to win.

<<snip>>

To achieve an honorable exit from Lebanon, then, Israel must find another way of moving Hezbollah. It will need to reach an understanding with those that can influence the Shi'ite militia, beginning with Syria. Israel's leaders understand this, we're told by senior officials in Jerusalem, but they worry that Washington doesn't get it.