Today's Situation

MEDALS AND MESSAGES, August 9, 2007

Maariv leads its Thursday edition with a banner headline proclaiming the '142 heroes' will be awarded citations for their roles in the Second Lebanon War.

According to the paper, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi has approved a list of 142 soldiers chosen by an IDF committee to receive medals of valor and citations of excellence for the courage they displayed during the fighting. Thirty-eight will be presented their awards from the chief of staff himself in a ceremony in Tel Aviv on September 2. Ashkenazi will also award four citations to the families of fallen soldiers, including the Medal of Valor to Major Roey Klein, who was killed in Bint Jbail when he jumped on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades.

No sooner had the announcement been made, however, but various figures in the IDF's top brass expressed concern over the cheapening of military honors, according to a report on Ynet on Thursday morning.

The website's military correspondent, Yossi Yehoshua, points out that during the war, 119 soldiers were killed. By comparison, 670 soldiers were killed during the 1982 Lebanon War, but only 11 citations were awarded.

Bereaved parents also criticized the announcement. 'Now is not the time to be discussing decorations,' said Israel Klausner, who lost his son Ohad in the battle of Bint Jbail, after the announcement. 'They reviewed the candidates months ago, before the Winograd Commission released its findings and before the results of the inquiries reached the bereaved parents," he said, "citations should be awarded after the investigations are completed and in looking at the context of the battles and the campaign. The way the citations for this war were awarded is some sort of media spin on (Prime Minister) Olmert's part, meant to make us forget his failings and the Winograd Commission.'

Meanwhile the bereaved parents of another soldier killed in the war, First Sgt. Kobi Smilag, denounced the decision to award Lt. Dr. Marina Kaminsky a citation for 'her courage in treating and evacuating wounded soldiers while under fire in Bint Jbail.' Eliezer and Flora Smilag said that Kaminsky, the only female soldier to be awarded a citation, did not do enough to save their son after his tank was hit.

Staying on the northern border, Haaretz reveals in its lead story that Israel has sent several messages to Damascus in recent weeks reiterating that it has no desire to attack Syria. According to the paper, this is aimed to keep Syria from misreading Israeli intentions and therefore deciding to launch a war. The paper adds that messages have been sent via various foreign channels, a senior government source said. In addition, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has made public statements to this effect.

Another such statement was issued on Wednesday night, when the prime minister met with Kadima activists in his Jerusalem home. Olmert said he does not expect a war to break out in the region in the coming months and reiterated Israel's desire for peace, adding that he believes the summer, fall and winter will be calm. He said the IDF is strengthening and acquiring more sophisticated weapons, but Israel has no plans for or interest in a confrontation in the north or the south.

Also Wednesday, the prime minister accompanied a delegation of American Jewish journalists to Israel's northern region. He told them that the challenges facing Israel's north were exaggerated. According to Arutz 7, A number of the journalists were noticeably taken aback at the prime minister's remarks, particularly at a time when he continues to be criticized for failing to have adequately addressed the needs of Israel's north both during and since the war.

Israel Radio, meanwhile, reports that Israel has told the United Nations that it would like to see the UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon take a more 'proactive role' in combating Hizbollah, should the forces' mandate be renewed when it expires later this month. In part, Israel wants UNIFIL to establish a greater presence in cities and villages known to be bases of support for Hizbollah.

On the Palestinian front, Israel Radio reports that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met Wednesday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Alexandria, where he called Hamas' seizure of Gaza 'destructive' and rejected talks with the group, saying 'Hamas helped all the enemies of the Palestinian people, those who don't want a Palestinian state.'

Haaretz carries reports on comments from officials at Rafael, the national authority for the development of weapons and military technology, who said that Israel's short-range rocket-based missile interception system will become operational in 18 months. On Wednesday, Haaretz reported comments from Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who said that a future pullout from the West Bank could hinge on deployment of the system.

Elsewhere, Maariv reports that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is about to lose almost half of her senior staff, as three top aides are set to step down. Bureau chief Ilan Yonas, personal assistant Tamar Abramovich and media advisor Ido Aharoni all announced in the past few months that they intend to leave their positions, saying they felt they had completed their tasks. Neither Maariv nor Haaretz, which also reported the story, suggested any possible replacement for the outgoing advisors.

Finally, Arutz 7 reports that the new IDF spokesman Avi Benayahu, who assumed the position this morning, is a former staffer at now-defunct left-wing daily Al Hamishmar, prior to which he was a reporter at Maariv. According to Arutz 7, he was also a member of the Israeli delegation in talks at the Wye Plantation in the United States, which focused on reducing the Jewish presence in Hebron. 

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