Saturday, June 21, 2008

Ignoring the storm


The brewing storm -Editorial

[T]he Israeli cabinet meets to approve a renewal of the cease-fire in Gaza, which has proven so successful. There have been no rocket, mortar or shooting attacks into Israel since the tahadiyeh was proclaimed by Hamas six months ago.

The border crossings [are] functioning smoothly under the watchful eyes of Egyptian officials...

Thanks to intensified Egyptian efforts, the flow of illicit weaponry into the Strip has been reduced to a trickle.

The Islamist government has never been more unpopular... Polls indicate that in elections, a reformist-oriented Fatah ticket is expected to capture a majority in the Palestinian parliament.

Meanwhile, Gilad Schalit's book, In Hamas Captivity, tops the best-seller lists.

This scenario is not, sadly, the way events are likely to play out.

[I]t is far from clear that Israel's dysfunctional cabinet exhausted a long list of measures that could have been pursued. These measures might have included ongoing large-scale military incursions and relentless pursuit of Hamas leaders so as to diminish their capacity to govern.

Instead, we may be witnessing the establishment of a nascent Palestinian state uncompromisingly committed to the destruction of Israel. With Gaza in its grip, the Islamists will turn their full attention to the West Bank.

Israeli decision-makers have purchased temporary calm...that comes at the cost of a devastating storm brewing over the horizon.
[Jerusalem Post]

1 comment:

Karridine said...

Its not so much that the 'dysfunctional cabinet' is ignoring the storm, but that it is dysfunctional BECAUSE it has been ignoring a big, golden-domed elephant in its living room, there atop Mount Carmel, Haifa...

The new and wondrous bond represented by that golden dome has the power to revitalize Israel, make functional its Knesset and rejuvenate the Jewish people...

WHEN they are allowed to learn Whose mortal remains are interred therein...