"We are in a complex situation,” says [Minister without portfolio Ami] Ayalon. “In order to adapt to it we have to adopt for ourselves a decision-making process. And such a process does not exist. The bottom line from all the Winograd reports is that the State of Israel does not have a policy, nor does it have an orderly process for molding a policy. Nobody knows what we want, what we aspire to, and nobody is conducting an orderly process in order to find out. For victory is not measured in comparative casualty levels, or in occupation of territory. Victory is measured by the capability to create a better political reality out of it. And I ask: will what we are doing today in Gaza create such a reality?” Ayalon answers his own question: “I’m not sure.” …
What Ayalon thinks is missing is a serious, in depth, and penetrating discussion on what we hope to achieve through what we’re doing and our goals. "So we’ve killed 100 Palestinians, and suppose we have weakened the military arm of Hamas. So what? For at the same time we have also strengthened dramatically the standing of Hamas in the territories, and we have weakened Abu Mazen and weakened the political axis of the moderate Arabs. In order to win, we need a political process. We have to achieve a cease-fire from a position of strength, which will be binding on all the organizations. We have to reach an agreement on the crossings with the cooperation of the international community, and we need a courageous and genuine political process in Judea and Samaria. There are 600 roadblocks there and not one of them is being removed, and in such a way there will never be a better economic situation there. We must think, talk and hold a discussion about all these things.” …
"The main thing,” says Ayalon “is that we say that Abu Mazen is weak. In my opinion, Olmert is no less weak if we cannot remove an outpost or move a roadblock. I am telling you that in the past week, the Palestinian Authority arrested 20 Hamas operatives in Judea and Samaria, one of whom died in Palestinian prison. So perhaps it is not perfect, but it is more than we are doing. And we are wasting energy on operations that do not have any real thinking behind them. A military operation that is not accompanied by a diplomatic initiative will strengthen Hamas, as the only element that is capable of fighting Israel, and will weaken Abu Mazen, to the point of putting him at risk of being toppled, as well as weakening the axis of moderate Arab states." Access the full article>>