Rather than leave Syria, Iran, which is militarily and economically weak, did the expected and pushed Hezbollah and other militias into the Golan Heights
Two years ago I wrote an op-ed in Yedioth Ahronoth entitled “What every Jewish mother should know: The prime minister, the security cabinet and the cabinet are dragging us to war.” I believed that the optimal policy was limited objectives: pushing the Iranians beyond the Daraa-Damascus highway, necessary attacks only, quiet diplomacy and the preservation of ambiguity. I thought Iran was big and strong enough to absorb blows and continue patiently working toward its aims. (Click here for live Turkey-Syria updates)
I said that the policy of inflammatory language and loud statements that “we won’t let Iran entrench itself in Syria” was misguided and wouldn’t achieve the desired objective. Worse, this tactic would open a long-term front that would force Iran to seek vengeance and reprisals. I believed that Iran was militarily weak, posing much less of a direct threat to Israel than Netanyahu portrayed in his scare campaign; Iran wouldn’t be able to withstand Israel’s air force, so when the time came, it would activate Hezbollah and other proxies.
In the south, even with Hamas in trouble, Netanyahu chose to capitulate and permit a war of attrition at the expense of the residents of the Gaza border communities and the northern Negev, while weakening the Palestinian Authority. That is, he chose anything to avoid progress toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to promote Netanyahu’s view that Iran is the most serious and immediate threat to Israel.
I wrote two years ago that instead of opening an overt military front versus Iran, it would have been better to prepare a crushing preemptive strike on Hezbollah at the right moment. Such a move would have lifted the missile-and-rocket threat to the Israeli home front while dealing a major blow to Iran’s allies and deterring the Iranians to a far greater extent than all the belligerent bluster.
Read more at https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-netanyahu-iran-policy-failed-1.7971981
