Israeli Ineptness

This post, Seven Idiots in the Cabinet, does a far better job than I can of taking the Israeli government to task.

the Israel of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Barak, of ministers Moshe Ya'alon and Benny Begin, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Eli Yishai and even Dan Meridor, is vying with Hamas and Hezbollah over who can produce the most resounding demonstrations of strength - which amount to nothing but humiliating evidence of weakness.

The military is not doing great either:

And it's disturbing to think about our army, which trips every time it is ordered to march. And don't believe their promises that next time will be different. There are always plenty of excuses, but judged by the results, it's always the same old disaster.

So much for the vaunted IDF.  I guess folks are stuck in the past when the IDF was among the most envied in the world for getting the most out of so little, winning wars while significantly outnumbered.  Years of enforcing occupation have a way of undermining a professional military.  Given the string of failures (Lebanon, Lebanon, Gaza and now this), perhaps it is time to re-evaluate the IDF's reputation.

The ultimate failure is in the hands of the politicians who should be able to read into the optimistic scenarios that the military may have spun.  There is often much criticism for the absence of military experience among today's American leaders, but the Israeli elites have no such shortage.  And that experience does not seem to have brought with it any wisdom.

We used to expect Israel to be better than this.  I guess we should end that habit since it is out of date.

PS and when Dan Drezner posts twice on how much Israel is like North Korea, you know you are in a bit of trouble.