Submitted by Dave Levy, May 4, 2007 22:18

All of Israeli's leaders will find themselves in the same quandry, how do you maintain normal relations wtih your neighbors, earn the respect of those Arab/Muslim countries that you have good relations with and are on a talking basis with, yet provide the security for your people that every country deserves?

Whether Olmert or Netanyahu, or Livni, or Beilin, people whose philosophies range from left to middle to right, Israel is under certain restraints no matter who leads the country.

The mistakes of the army can be fixed, but politics is more difficult and complex.

After all, in 1973, Israel was almost overrun by it's rush to the Canal. It incurred heavy losses in planes and tanks. Until Sharon smartly crossed the Canal and outflanked the Egyptian army divisions, lots of Israeli leaders were sweating.

But Israel regrouped afterwards and is now far stronger than ever.

Israel cannot be inflexible in the future, either with it's foreign policy or it's use of the military. It's enemies are smart, as with the insurgents in Iraq. It will have to learn from it's mistakes.

Blaming Olmert, Peretz and Livni for all of Israel's ills is wrong. Give them a chance. Changing boats in mid-stream sometimes can result in drowning.

There are plenty of people in Israel with military experience, who can be listened to in the event of more wars. Now is the time to get on with planning for these calamities.

But certainly, in any new outbreak, it's important that Israel wins a decisive victory..to at least send the right message to would be attackers. There is nothing as successful as success.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.