Note: The translations of articles from the Hebrew press
are prepared by the Government Press Office
as a service to foreign journalists in Israel.
They express the views of the authors.
Graduated Punishment
(Analysis by Ron Ben-Yishai, "Yediot Ahronot", Mar 1, 1999, p. A2, 22)
Yesterday's attack in Lebanon is intended to tell the terrorists, Syria
and Lebanon that Israel's patience is ending. From now on, Israel intends
to exact a high price for every attack on its soldiers and northern
communities.
The IDF yesterday broke its policy of restraint that it has taken in
recent years in Lebanon, and activated a contingency plan of "graduated
punishment."
The objective is not to bring calm to Lebanon, but to block the escalation
that began with the Hizballah operations with Syrian encouragement
in recent months. Israel recently noticed the Syrian trend to escalate the
Lebanese situation, apparently in order to bring Israel to the negotiating
table over the Golan Heights.
Yesterday's air attack was the first stage of "graduated punishment." It
is intended to make three crucial points to the Lebanese and Palestinian
terrorist organizations, the Syrians and the Lebanese government: From now
on, Israel intends to exact a high price for every attack on the northern
communities and soldiers; from now on, Israel's retaliation will be in
proportion to the severity and objectives of the other side's actions. The
coming days will show whether the message has been received.
In effect, this is an improved model of Operations "Accountability" (1993)
and "Grapes of Wrath" (1996). The main difference is that this time the
Israeli government has no political objectives that it intends to achieve
by the use of continuous military pressure on the Lebanese civilian
population. This is not a snowballing operation whose beginning is to
bring the governments of Lebanon and Syria to the negotiating table or to
cause them to completely halt Hizballah's operations. The objective this
time is more modest: To end the escalation of Hizballah's attacks, which
is costing the IDF the blood of its soldiers, and to force the terrorist
organizations to stick to the letter and spirit of the "Grapes of Wrath"
understandings. In other words: To cease attacking Israeli communities and
using Shi'ite villages as a base for shooting at our forces in the
security zone.
In order to achieve these objectives and to avoid as far as possible
escalation, the IDF will not utilize all the firepower at its disposal.
The intention in the coming days is to make the IDF's retaliation
proportional to the modus operandi of the forces in Lebanon. The IDF's
methods of retaliation will also be proportional to the severity of the
other side's attacks, beginning with attacks on military and paramilitary
targets, up to imposing a naval blockade and preventing movement inside
Lebanon.
We saw an example of what the IDF intends to do in yesterday's air
attacks. The Air Force attacked three quality Hizballah targets, including
the organization's nerve center in Baalbek. In attacking this target,
which Israel has not attacked for years, the IDF intended to damage
Hizballah's commanders in retaliation for the killing of Israeli
commanders. The other two Hizballah targets attacked were smaller and less
important. In comparison, the fourth target attacked, Naima, belongs to
Ahmed Jibril's organization (the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine General Command).
Although the prime minister tried to ignore this fact, emphasizing
Hizballah's violations of "Grapes of Wrath", the IDF did not stop the
attack, since it wanted to make it clear that any organization that
attacks Israel will be punished whether it operates on a large or small
scale.
There is no doubt that the modest targets selected for the IDF's attacks
are due to the government's desire to avoid being blamed for operating out
of electoral considerations. The IDF's operational plan was prepared in
accordance with a security cabinet decision from November with the
agreement of then defense minister, Yitzhak Mordechai. Therefore,
yesterday, there was no need for cabinet approval following the attack
that killed Brig.-Gen Erez Gerstein, Sgt.-Maj. Imad Abu Rish, Sgt. Omer
Alkebetz and correspondent Ilan Roeh. The IDF chose the targets, which
were already picked in advance for just such a case. The chief-of-staff
presented them to the defense minister, who then approved them, as did the
prime minister and they were implemented.
It now remains to be seen whether the graduated punishment restores the
fighting in Lebanon to an acceptable level and lessens the IDF's losses.