This AljazeeraEnglish video was posted earlier today. It shows the destruction in the Gaza Strip. Since it is reporting on the impact of the attacks and not policy I take it at face value.
Taylor Marsh found the above video and a link to the Guardian UK. The Guardian story seems to indicate, to me at least, that the 6 month cease fire with Hamas as, for the Israeli’s, nothing more than a planning period.
While there is no question that Hamas or others on the Gaza Strip did fire small rockets and other weapons into Israeli territory I’ve read previously that there were no casualties although it did scare the populous. Perhaps that was it’s intent.
It seems that Israel on the other hand is seeking a ‘final’ solution to the Gaza problem. No one understands the end game they seek. Juan Cole comments on that exact topic:
Do the Israelis expect the population at some point to turn against Hamas, blaming it for the blockade and the bombardment? But by destroying what was left of the Gaza middle class, surely they a throwing people into the arms of Hamas. The US experience of bombing North Vietnam and mining Haiphong Harbor, etc., was that it only stiffened Hanoi’s resolve.
History does in fact repeat itself if it isn’t studied. In Cole’s article he makes the comment that he believes insurgent wars have only been won militarily about 20% of the time. In fact the only insurgent war that has been conclusively won by the larger power in the last century was the British war in Malay that took 15 years. Bill Clinton made that remark a year or more ago. (Sorry I can’t find the exact citation.)
I wouldn’t care to be the next President with the list of crucial issues he faces.
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