As Israel's Wins Its War With Hamas, It Mulls Over Its Next Step

 

Today, Day 16 of the War against Hamas was a decisive day for Israel, both militarily and strategically.

The fight for Shejaiya was the one most on the radar, where a Gaza City suburb accurately described as a terrorist fortress was essentially leveled. But the IDF enjoyed equal and important successes in eastern Rafah and eastern Khan Yunis in the south.

The IDF's ground game was to split its forces into 5 mobile task forces, each one the size of half a division and attack Hamas at multiple points in coordination with attacks from the air. The strategy has worked well and both PM Netanyahu and Chief of Staff General Benny Ganz have been quite open in praising the IDF's performance. This isn't Lebanon in 2006 with amateurs at the helm. The war has been run not by Israel's security cabinet but by Netanyahu, Ganz and Defense Minister Moishe Ya'alon.And Aluf Ganz is not sitting in Jerusalem, but in the front lines with his men.

Visiting Colonel Tomer Yifrach, the 188th Armored Corps commander who had injured in his back Ganz asked how he was feeling. Yifrach answered: "I have amazing men who watch my back." He does.

Here is Ganz with the heroic Golani Brigade commander, Colonel Ghassan Alian, who defied the medics and returned to his men after being wounded  and evacuated to the hospital over the weekend. He still bears the scars of battle.





The cost has been high, but  spirit of the Tzahal is superb:



This video is of soldiers dancing just before they went into action in Gaza. The song is "We Have No one to Rely Upon Except Our Father In Heaven."

While destroying the tunnels could still take weeks, that goal is now in sight. But the main decisive battle is yet to be fought.At this point, what's being considered is a major assault on the Hamas central command post,  the bunker complex housing Hamas’ top military command and infrastructure inside and below Shifa Hospital (yet another  violation of international law by Hamas, but who's still counting at this point?). That assault could come as soon as tomorrow.



Hamas at this point has rejected any ceasefire except on the most ridiculous of terms. Hamas Chief Khalid Mesha'al, safe in Qatar is insisting that any ceasefire has to involve the removal of the Egyptian and Israeli blockade, which would make reconstruction of the tunnels and the restocking of Hamas' missile arsenal a matter of ease.

 

Meshaal said, "We will not accept any initiative that does not lift the blockade on our people and that does not respect their sacrifices. Let us agree on achieving our demands and we will then agree on the zero-hour for a ceasefire."

In view of that attitude and the fact that Hamas has violated three 'humanitarian truces' since this war began, is obvious that any cessation of hostilities is not going to come easy.

The EU foreign ministers surprisingly came out with a joint statement calling for Hamas to be disarmed. Of course, none of them are talking about sending in any boots on the ground to help with the job.

There's no advantage to Israel in a ceasefire or in leaving Hamas in place so that the whole scenario can be played out again in a year or so.What Israel's security cabinet will debate is what comes next.

Should Israel simply destroy or at least badly cripple Hamas,declare victory and go home? Do they want to occupy Gaza,and have responsibility for 1.5 million people, a significant number of whom have always hated Jews just because? Do they turn it over to Abbas and the PA? To the UN?

I still stick with my original solution - defeat Hamas utterly,annex Gaza and transfer a significant amount of the current inhabitants to to Abbas' little reichlet in Area A. Then repopulate it with Jews and watch Gaza turn from a terrorist swamp into Singapore or Hong Kong. Even the Arabs left in Gaza wil be astounded at how much better their lives will be.

US And The Philippines Discuss Larger US Military Presence To Restructure Old Alliance

 

The Filipino government, anxious about what they say is increasing Chinese aggression in Philippine-claimed waters in the South China Sea is now in talks with the US about an increased US military presence and help in refurbishing and training its own military.

Filipino Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario sent a letter to the FIlipino congress emphasizing the necessity for American troops to have an “increased rotational presence” will help the country attain a “minimum credible defense” to help the Philippines guard its territory while it works to modernize its own military, something that has not been a priority for quite some time.

The Philippines, a former U.S. colony actually bans foreign troops being permanently based on its soil, something that was directly aimed at the US after the two countries had a falling out in 1991 and forced the U.S. to vacate its two major American bases in the Philippines at Subic and Clark.

A few U.S. troops were allowed back in to help the Filipino military battle Abu Sayaff, the local al-Qaeda affiliate (the Philippines has a large Muslim population, mainly located on the southern island of Mindanao), but this recent call is directed at increasing tension between the Philippines and China.

China claims huge stretches of the South China Sea as its own sovereign territory, and that has led to clashes with not only the Philippines but with Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. The Chinese sent a fleet into the waters of the Spratly Islands, which the Philipines claim as their own sovereign territory just last July, and China has also turned Mischief Reef, which it occupied, into a naval base.

So the Filipino government is once again seeking to base U.S. forces there.

While this is being dubbed as 'temporary' for political reasons, there's no doubt in my mind that the superb harbor at what was a major U.S. base at Subic Bay will once again become a prominent American military asset.

In his famous speech to Congress 62 years ago, General Douglas MacArthur reminded America that the western Pacific is America's maritime redoubt against our enemies. He was entirely correct.

We're seeing this basic truth reaffirmed again, as our ally Japan rebuilds its Navy and the U.S. builds ups its forces in Northern Australia, Guam, the Marianas and the naval fortress of Singapore. Look for the Philippines to be another important link in our Pacific defenses.

This is a much bigger deal than it appears.

Why Mitt Romney Lost The Election

In my earlier piece on yesterday's unfortunate events, I concentrated on the big picture issues, the meaning behind them and where things are likely going.

But I also promised you that I'd go into the political and strategic reasons later behind Obama's victory and Romney's defeat, and a few lessons we can learn.

I want to be very clear here. Mitt Romney, for the most part ran a disciplined and impressive campaign, and conducted himself well. However, he made several unforced errors that were blown out of proportion as they would be for any Republican, and there were a couple of big things he simply had no control over.

First, one of the big things he had no control over was what I call the media filter.From the every beginning a significant element of the media had obviously chosen sides, and until the first debate, President Obama had virtually free rein to cement a negative image of Governor Romney in his half of the electorate.

Examples? Here are a few of the more important ones:

The WAPO's fraudulent article on Romney's tenure at Bain Capital that even their own fact checker gave 4 Pinocchios to that started the whole 'Romney as heartless plutocrat' theme of the Democrat campaign.

ABC's George Stephanopoulos pulling an unrelated question about banning birth control out of thin air while he was supposedly moderating a GOP debate that was the kickoff for Sandra Fluke and the 'GOP War on Women' campaign that started a month or so later.

Candy Crowley's obvious pre-debate tip off from the Obama campaign on the 'act of terror' line that the president had obviously rehearsed and that Crowley claimed she had a transcript available for.

As a matter of fact, the president's claim that he called Benghazi an 'act if terrorism' during his Rose Garden speech was in fact false (he made a brief, general allusion to 'acts of terrorism' the next day after the Rose Garden speech, at a fund raiser in Colorado)and Crowley herself admitted she'd made a mistake, conveniently after the debate was long over.

But it was enough to knock Romney off his stride for ten minutes or so and change the entire perception of the debate. Even worse, Romney didn't respond publicly and make an issue of it publicly, using the actual transcripts. And he downplayed Benghazi afterwards, with the media happy to go along with him.

CBS did something even more egregious, cutting out footage from an interview with the president the day after the Benghazi attack where the president refused to call it a terrorist attack, and then holding that footage until the day of the election.

Had I been Governor Romney, I would have realized that the fix was going to be in after Obama's failure and cancelled the second and third debates, saying simply that I saw no further purpose to them. And I would have been hammering Benghazi from day one.Lesson to be learned? Control the media and the agenda, not the other way around.

The second big thing Governor Romney had no control over was Hurricane Sandy. Fully 42% of the voter said that Barack Obama's little photo op affected their vote because he suddenly looked 'presidential' again. especially after that oaf Chris Christie essentially endorsed him.

But just imagine if Governor Romney, instead of waiting for Chris Christie's invitation had simply gone to the hurricane victims with relief supplies for his own photo op and his own camera men. Were they going to turn him down? True, Christie wouldn't have been along for the ride, but given his attitude, I see that as a plus. Lesson? Never let a good crisis go to waste.

Third, Governor Romney was far too gentle when it came to exposing how President Obama, the so-called 'middle class warrior' was actually crushing the middle class with higher taxes and prices on energy, food and goods. Governor Romney never adequately articulated that for President Obama to pay for his socialist nirvana, to fund ObamaCare, the student loan boondoggle, the green energy scams, the entire agenda, he was going to have to punitively tax not just 'the rich' but the middle class.

In fact, the governor's oppo research staff was either ridiculously inept or Governor Romney refused to take advantage of what they gave him to paint Obama in entirely different colors.

Instead of shying away from the president's chest thumping about 'saving the auto industry', Romney should have nailed him on the $80 billion it cost to gift GM to the president union political allies that the taxpayer will never see again.

Instead of allowing the president to get away with lying about how he 'funded' Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, he should have revealed that the president actually wanted to cut it to the bone, and that it was congress that revolted and insisted on funding it.

He could have asked the president why he fought so hard to deny medical care to infants that survive an abortion.He could have even made a campaign ad out of it, featuring the president's own voice.

And those are just a few of many,many examples. Lesson learned? There's a fine line between appearing presidential and allowing your opponent to get away with murder. Find their weaknesses and don't shy away from exploiting them.

Fourth, the governor dropped the ball totally on a large group of Latino voters. Governor Romney got most of the Cuban vote and some of the Caribbean Latino vote, but he failed when it came to most Mexicans and central Americans. And it was totally unnecessary.

Here's a clue.Some of these people are grifters, a few are leftist ideologues, but the vast majority are hardworking, socially conservative religious people who came here for the same reason most other immigrants did - economic opportunity and the chance to raise their children in a free society with upward mobility.And very pro-military and national defense, by the way. We have lots of Hispanic veterans and more Hispanic Medal of Honor winners than any other group.

In other words, a natural conservative constituency. In fact, after a generation or so, a lot of them start drifting that direction anyway.

If I were Mitt Romney, instead of talking about people 'self-deporting' I'd have been on Telemundo and Univision talkng about the issues that matter to them. Explaining why ObamaCare was going to lead to rationing and less availability. Touting school choice and vouchers, a hot button issue for Latinos with children now stuck in the dysfunctional public schools. Talking about the good paying blue collar jobs and lower gas prices that would result from my energy program.Explaining how Obama's HHS mandate attacks their religious freedom, and revealing the president's position on infanticide for newborns who survive abortions. I'd speak to them about how lower taxes equal prosperity and economic freedom an dhow Obama's policies limit it.

And I would have made a promise most of them already know Barack Obama failed to keep. I would have promised to work with congress on a bill to address immigration reform as a priority during my first term.

Most of the Latinos concerned about the issue of migration come at it from the standpoint of family members and friends from the old country who are here illegally or want to be here. I'd refuse to commit to details so as not to make promises I couldn't keep, but I'd mention things like guarantors to allow pending but legal status, increased opportunities to earn citizenship in the military or other forms of national service, use of E-verify, even a realistic and fair points system to allow clear guidelines.

And I'd be doing rallies in their neighborhoods, with Latino Republicnas.

Had Romney done that, sincerely and humanely, I have no doubt he would have taken a chunk of the Hispanic vote. According to the exit polls, they were ten percent of the electorate.

Lesson learned? Don't be afraid to talk to anyone honestly about the issues that concern them. Find the areas you agree on and build on that consensus. Because you might have more in common with them than you think.

Mitt Romney would have been a superb president for this country. His defeat was unfortunate, to say the least, but as education it's priceless.