Monday, March 03, 2008

Reflections on the coming Gaza incursion


Hamas Using U.S. Weapons Against IDF -Khaled Abu Toameh

Hamas gunmen [are] using many American-made arms seized from the Fatah-controlled PA security forces.

Hamas is hoping that once the fighting is over, it will be able to declare "victory, as Hizbullah did after the war in 2006," said a Palestinian source.
(Jerusalem Post)


Loud Silence from Arab World -Zvi Bar'el

[T]he very mild Egyptian reaction indicates that the IDF raid is perceived by the Arab world to be first and foremost a war against Hamas, not the Palestinian people.
(Ha'aretz)


Israeli City Shocked as Palestinian Rockets Hit -Aron Heller

By reaching Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people about 11 miles north of Gaza, Hamas raised the stakes considerably. It is one of the largest cities in southern Israel...

"The fact that more than a dozen rockets have targeted the major population center of Ashkelon is a sign that the terrorists have broken through a new threshold in their war against the Israeli civilian population," said Mark Regev.

Israeli officials assume that new and improved rockets were smuggled into Gaza when its border with Egypt was breached in January, bringing Ashkelon into range.
(AP/Washington Post)


Saturday in Gaza -Steven Erlanger & Taghreed El-Khodary

Hamas said that Malak Karfaneh, 6, died Friday from an Israeli strike on Beit Hanun, but locals said that a Palestinian rocket had fallen short and landed near the house.

Israeli officials say that up to half of Palestinian rockets fall inside Gaza.
(New York Times)


Striking Hamas Increases Chance for Peace -Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

"I have recently heard criticism that civilians are being hurt, that the State of Israel is using too much force. Nobody has the right to preach morality to the State of Israel for taking basic action to defend itself and prevent hundreds of thousands of residents of the south from continuing to be exposed to incessant [missile] firing."
(Prime Minister's Office)


The End of the "Guilty Israeli" -Yossi Klein Halevi

We Israelis who once wanted nothing more than to leave Gaza forever now realize that we may have no choice but to return, at least until relative quiet is restored to our border.

The first intifada created a substantial bloc of guilt-ridden Israelis ready to take almost any risk for peace. As the Oslo peace process came into being, the guilty Israeli became the most potent source of Palestinian empowerment. Israelis felt so desperate to end the occupation that they withdrew their army and uprooted their settlements from Gaza in 2006.

[T]oday the guilty Israeli has become nearly extinct. Gaza was a test case for Israeli withdrawal, and the experiment was a disaster. How, Israelis wonder, can we evacuate the West Bank and risk rocket attacks on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem?

So we move toward the next terrible round of conflict. This time, though, for all our anguish, we will feel a lot less remorse. Because even guilty Israelis realize that, until our neighbors care more about building their state than undermining ours, the misery of Gaza will persist.
(Los Angeles Times)

2 comments:

LHwrites said...

There seems little to say around this. I agree that the muted response from the Arab world shows they not only understand that current hostilities are, and will be, directed at Hamas, but that it is justifiably so. When Rice speaks in support of Israel, you know that there must be no other position to take.

Bruce said...

I found the Halevi piece particularly poignant.