After days of aerial assault, Israel has begun its ground offensive in Gaza. Until now, I didn't bother to post on this depressing topic which has become as predictable as the sun rising in the east. The spate of news stories, analysis, point-counter point on the latest upheaval in the middle east are too just as predictable. The worldwide uproar is not about to lead to any solution until the US decides that it is time to bring the endless cyclical violence to an end. I don't see that happening in the near future. The ostensible reason for the latest Israeli incursion is the breakdown of the mostly meaningless six month old cease fire between Israel and Hamas in the form of rocket attacks by the latter into Israeli territory. However, I believe that as always, the violence in Gaza is a shadow play. Palestinians are mere proxy warriors and expendable victims for outside forces to test each others resolve. While there are many covert conflicts at work here among various Arab nations and Iran, Israel, as usual may be mainly playing to the US political gallery. From day one my feeling has been that in this sad and dingy war, Israel's action is actually a shot across the bow of the incoming Obama ship, facilitated by the warmongers of the outgoing Bush-Cheney administration who wish to intimidate Iran, the one enemy they didn't have the time to tackle during their belligerent eight year rule. The one sided war is also meant to test Obama's resolve and to warn him to stay away from the high voltage third rail of US foreign policy. It is not a coincidence that this videoof Obama's press conference (the bottom one where Obama is in his shirt sleeves) in Jerusalem last summer, has been playing endlessly on Israeli television. My suspicion is echoed by others.
Jim Hoagland in the Washington Post:
Israel's brutal assault on Hamas rocketeers — and the Palestinian civilians among whom they hide in the Gaza Strip — is not just another tactical round of mutual, if unequal, bloodletting by ancient adversaries. Israel's campaign was skillfully conceived with strategic aims that involve Iran, the American political calendar and perhaps the nature of pan-Arabism today.
Bush must respond at that strategic level — within his time-limited means. It is pointless to expect him suddenly to exert pressure on Israel for lasting concessions to the Palestinians. He did not just give Israel a green light to inflict as much damage as possible on Hamas once that radical movement foolishly renounced a six-month-old truce. Bush knocked down the traffic light post and waved the Israelis through the intersection.
His unwavering support will not have amazed Israeli leaders. However outwardly positive Barack Obama was about Israel during the campaign, the president-elect is an unknown quantity for them. To Israel it must have made sense to slam Hamas as hard as it could under Bush and start with a theoretically clean slate with Obama on Jan. 20.
Brian Leiterin the Leiter Reports:
But why this savagery now? One imagines it has something to do with the specter of a change of Administration in the United States–from a far right to a perhaps centrist government–though Obama's choice of Senator Clinton, unapologetic supporter of the criminal war of aggression against Iraq, hardly suggests that 'radical' notions (like the Golden Rule applies to Palestinians) are about to come into ascendancy.
What a sad and ugly business.
And Pat Oliphant in an editorial cartoon:
Accidental Blogger 
2 responses to “Israel’s Gaza Strategy”
FALANGIST ISRAEL
I sit beside the radio
And hear the massacre–
It´s ten days now, and progress slow,
Israeli casualties are low,
Some six, those “friendly” dont ya know–
And more yet to endure.
The Palestinian death count is
(Excluding never children)
At least six hundred–utter bliss
To the Israelis, death like this,
As driven unto their abyss
The numbers are bewildering.
It was a lesson very well
That Jewry learned in Warsaw–
In Palestine to make a hell,
As bloating bodies cast their smell,
Dead innocents, as no tale tell
But so it is in Gaza.
Today, I understand the cry
Of “Death to Israel” often
Upraised–I used to wonder why,
A child, but with an open eye
I see such massacres go by
Which judgement cannot soften.
“Vengeance is mine” hath said the Lord,
It ought not be the people´s–
Yet Old Allah, although abhorred
By those who do not love the sword,
Perhaps will chortle in accord
When vengeance Israel topples.
Ah well, the ways of God are strange–
The radio keeps broadcasting–
The only certainty is change
As fate and fortune rearrange,
And Falangists, derailed their flange,
Find triumph never-lasting.
.
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I wonder if the one that wrote this poem is aware that their Anti-Zionism has crossed the line into antisemitism. If people dont want critics of Israel to be labeled antisemites, they should really try to stop this flagrant regurgitation of classic antisemitic themes. “At least six hundred–utter bliss” WTF? Well if you believe that what Hamas says about the death toll is true then obviously believing that Israel is a warmongering society were people are joyous for Arab deaths is not surprising. According to Italian reports coming out now there are many anti-hamas Gazains who are claiming the death toll was under 600. Still an awful number and certainly 600 people could not have ALL been combatants, but lying and inflating the number to 1300+ doesnt do anyone any good. Who would you believe? Hamas or Palestinians that both hate Israel and Hamas? Lying about the number only makes Israeli society less likely to be sympathetic because they keep up on every detail in the conflict (for example the MASSACRE in “The battle of Jenin” 2002 that after all the media left ended up being not 500+ dead but 56 )
These falsehoods do nothing to end the conflict or create a culture of peace and reconciliation.
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