What really happened in Afghanistan? America was amazed by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and sent its army into Afghanistan because the Taliban was hosting al-Qaida, and from there into Iraq based on erroneous information that Iraq had nuclear weapons.
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The Afghanistan operation proved itself and led to the eradication of al-Qaida. The operation in Iraq was completely unnecessary. The US should have pulled out of both countries after its main goals were achieved, or turned out to be a mistake. But there is no book about how to end military operations, so many armies stick around for longer than necessary. Both these missions cost a fortune in terms of the numbers of soldiers killed and wounded, and provided Hollywood with dependable inspiration for movies.
They had all the characteristics of hanging onto territory for the long term: the establishment of a large group of collaborators they didn't know what to do with at the end of the mission, or the hope that military forces aligned with the occupying force would be ready to take up the fight after the occupiers left. Biden's mistake wasn't implementing Trump's decision to leave Iraq, but in choosing to believe US intelligence officials who said that Afghan military forces would easily be able to take on the Taliban. He is being criticized for this, justifiably, but he was right in getting America out of Afghanistan.
I've been hearing from experts who are saying for the thousandth time that the lesson for Israel is that only Israel can defend itself. You could think we'd ever asked the Americans to fight on our behalf. Israel isn't dependent on American soldiers, but on American weapons, and it's hard to believe that anyone would really think that it could easily shrug off that dependence in the near future. On the other hand, the American lesson could be that the attempt to create a defendable democracy in the Middle East out of nothing is pathetic and that the close defense cooperation with Israel is the most important partnership America has in the region. This could be an opportunity to rethink the possibility of an American-Israeli defense pact.
The next minefield for Israel is the Cave of the Patriarchs. Anyone looking for trouble can find it at the cave. In violation of the 1997 deal between Netanyahu and Arafat about an Israeli withdrawal from Hebron, which said that Israel could carry out structural changes at the Cave of the Patriarchs only with the agreement of the Hebron Municipality, the Defense Ministry has started an initiative to make the site more accessible that is supposed to take six months to complete, and is being conducted without the Palestinians agreeing to it.
It could be that this accessibility project, which includes paving another path to the place of prayer as well as building an elevator shaft, is completely justified. But we should look into whether it could have been launched in coordination with the relevant Palestinian authorities (possibly as part of some broader deal that would include issues of interest to the other side). After all, anyone who claims that they have no partner and that the Palestinians violate agreements should take a look at their own actions.
On both sides, there are people who are just waiting for a spark to send everything up in flames, and there is no reason to give these actors a present. Incidentally, the Biden administration, which has a special interest in preventing needless conflagrations, could help and prevent the elevator shaft from becoming the next landmine.
In Poland, the government is terribly offended by the Israeli criticism of the new law that shortens the statute of limitations on petitions for the restoration of stolen property to 30 years. As both sides hurl accusations, Poland has threatened to cancel the Israeli youth educational trips. I would suggest turning this threat into an opportunity.
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