The Titanic was “unsinkable,” until it sunk on its first voyage. France’s Maginot Line was “unbreachable,” until the German Panzers simply went around it. The Nazi secret-code Ultra was “unbreakable,” until the Allies continuously broke it throughout World War II.
General Haim Bar-Lev, and the entire IDF, thought his eponymous “Bar-Lev” line on the Suez Canal was unbreachable, until, one morning when Jews were in synagogues fasting in October 1973, the Egyptians breached it in two-hours-flat with water cannons.
So much for “genius” engineers and generals..
General Bar-Lev’s son, Omer Bar-Lev, is an MK (Labor) in the present Knesset. MK Bar-Lev is a highly decorated retired IDF officer. And MK Bar-Lev is not just a highly-decorated officer – he was the commander of the elite legendary commando unit, Sayerat Matkal. And, MK Bar-Lev also commanded the Jordan Valley unit of the IDF and worked with Achari, which encourages Israeli army enlistment. All of these are great achievements.
MK Bar-Lev, however, seems to think he has invented a new “unbreachable” defense line – the 1967 Green Line (more or less) or The Clinton Parameters. At the recent JPost conference, he stated he wants to unilaterally retreat from much of Judea and Samaria. This resembles a case of like-father-like-son. In 2014, MK Bar-Lev is invested into a chimera as was his father in 1973. And, MK Bar-Lev has just as sure a sense of invincible military power as had his father.
MK Bar-Lev uses three elements of “logic” to “prove” Israel should unilaterally leave Judea and Samaria, and let whoever, and whatever fill the void.
1) Israel is a “Jewish” country, and by Israel’s unilateral retreat from large areas of Judea and Samaria, it will return Israel to being “Jewish.”
2) After the 2005 Gaza retreat, although 15,000 Gaza rockets have since been fired into pre-1967 Israel, MK Bar-Lev says, “No one wants to re-invade, and re-occupy Gaza, so how was retreating from Gaza so bad? Therefore, it was the right decision to make.”
3) Since Israel is apparently content with the Gaza situation, Israel will be happy with the “West Bank” unilateral retreat situation of the future, even when that brings rockets to Tel Aviv.
MK Bar-Lev is Labor’s “point-person-expert” for military and foreign affairs, but has failed to understand some simple facts.
1) Unlike the Gaza, Judea and Samaria’s westward flowing underground water aquifers supply or are responsible for over 50% of Israel’s water supply. This water source would be destroyed and diverted by the Palestinians for their own use.
2) MK Bar-Lev wants to put US troops into the PA ‘West Bank’ Palestinian state to protect Israel. So, MK Bar-Lev accepts the fact that US troops will get killed by al Qaeda.
3) The pre-1967 Israeli land around Gaza is almost all empty farm land, and the land that abuts Judea and Samaria holds 70% of Israel’s population, 80% of her industrial base and Israel’s only international airport.
Firing a short-to-medium range rocket from Gaza into Israel is like firing a rocket from North Dakota into North Dakota- it’s likely not to hit anything. But, any Fatah or Hamas rocket fired from Judean and Samarian mountains into Tel Aviv is like firing a rocket from Brooklyn into Manhattan, it’s bound to kill many people.
4) The Jews who live in Sderot and Ashkelon aren’t the established, politically-connected Jews of Tel Aviv, but are generally newer immigrants. The millions of politically connected Tel Aviv Jews will demand the re-invasion of Gaza at all costs. Israel’s failure to re-invade the Gaza Strip, and to allow Israel’s citizens and children in Ashkelon and Sderot to live in abject fear certainly does not show that retreating from Gaza was a good military-political strategy.
5) Now that Iran and Hamas have armed Gaza to the hilt, re-invading Gaza would be a blood-bath for Israeli soldiers.
6) MK Bar-Lev should come to the United States Congress and tell US senators that his “plan” is that after rockets fall into Tel Aviv, the IDF is going to re-invade the “West Bank” with US troops smack dab in the middle. MK Bar-Lev will be laughed out of the building.
7) Even though General Bar-Lev’s Suez Canal defense-line failed, Israel could tactically fall back to the Milta and Gidi passes in Sinai outside of the Egyptians SAM air-defense umbrella. When MK Bar-Lev’s Green Line defense fails, Muslim Arab armies tthere is nowhere else to fall back. It will be game-over for Israel.
8) Worst of all, MK Bar-Lev’s unilateral retreat creates a Palestinian Arab “demographic” problem because hundreds of thousands if not millions of Palestinian Arabs can then enter the evacuated areas without a resolution of the “right of return.”
MK Bar-Lev isn’t joking about his idea for a unilateral retreat from Judea and Samaria. He’s deadly serious. And that is something to worry about.