Dumb and Dumber

Michael Freund notes that:

In the past week alone, Palestinian rockets have hit the western Negev, Kibbutz Nir Am, Kibbutz Nahal Oz, and Highway 34 near Sderot, and the terrorists are said to be perfecting missiles with an even longer range.

and then quotes the reaction of Israel's Chief-of-Staff:

"In order to deal with the Kassams," Halutz said, "we would need to breach various constraints that we have imposed upon ourselves, moral constraints and others, that we do not wish to breach, and I do not recommend that we do so." The chief of staff later explained that he was referring to more aggressive counterterror operations designed to stop the rocket launchings against Israel, as these would inevitably harm innocent Palestinian civilians.

He then makes the quite obvious conclusion which immediately occured to me, too:

At first glance there would appear to be something eminently admirable in Halutz's approach. After all, Israel has long prided itself on its efforts to minimize harm to innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, and it is doubtful that any other country in the world would go to such lengths while under rocket attack from a neighbor.

And yet, however humane and noble such sentiments might be, they are woefully misplaced. The morality of avoiding Palestinian civilian casualties may be unquestionable, but the failure to protect Israel's citizens is downright unconscionable.

However, Michael misses another important concern. Halutz was lambasted and vilifed for a lack of morality when he was quoted as reacting to criticism against the air force for killing 14 Arab civilians while eliminating one Arab terrorist in an apartment building and saying that he slept well at night. Halutz was named as a respondent in an appeal to the High Court of Justice to prevent him from receiving the appointment as CIC.

So, what's my conclusion?

Simple. Halutz has knuckled under. Now he is adopting the very standard of morality of his detracters. In other words, the Left has won out again. They kept up the pressure, used the courts, mobilized outside support and poof!, Israeli civilians will be paying the price while Halutz rides high.