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A quote from tomorrow’s Winograd Commission today:
Israeli officials said that they were prepared for an extended campaign in Gaza, possibly including ground forces, and that the goal is to break Hamas’s military capacity. "We will continue to attack as long as they fire," said a senior Israeli military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Israel’s military, he said, intends to pressure Hamas to the point where the Islamist movement either "runs out of will or runs out of capability to launch more attacks."
Runs out of will or runs out of capability. Hamas will never run out of "will" to attack Israel in the face of Israeli blockade and bombardment. Indeed, if the Olmert government isn’t being cynical when it talks about how Hamas is committed to the eradication of Israel, then it won’t run out of "will" as long as there is an Israel. Capabilities-wise, it depends on what sort of "attack" this official means, but we’re splitting hairs here. It’s absurd to believe Israel can deprive Hamas of the capability to launch attacks for any extensive period of time.
Instead, Israel is acting astrategically to Hamas’s provocations, isolating itself even further internationally, and driving the Palestinians of Gaza — and, who knows, maybe the West Bank — into the hands of Hamas, all in the service of unachievable military objectives and delivering unconscionable collective punishment to Palestine. The smartest thing Israel could do would be to stop the bombardment immediately before the temptation to re-invade becomes overwhelming and the 2006 Lebanon war repeats itself as farce. Or are these more of Condoleezza Rice’s birth pangs of the new Middle East?
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You have summed up the intractability of the problem quite well. If you can’t negotiate with an enemy committed to your eradication, and cannot eliminate their capability to attack, what do you do? “Go on and on and on” and merely accept attacks on your population? Appeal to the UN? (LOL) Unless and until there is a government in Gaza that recognizes the benefits of peace, or at least an “understanding” with Israel, this will go on and on.
As you have noted, there is a large segment of the Israeli population that wants a peaceful two-state solution. Once the Palestinians reach a similar understanding, the path will be visible. Until that point, this cycle of astrategic action and reaction will continue.
Israel has definitely made it clear that they are in it for the long haul in this battle. But this battle is older than Israel, and is an increasingly dangerous chess match consisting of blockades, rebuttals, and temporary ceasefires. Following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, both sides were promised so much for their people and for their religion, and neither side was satisfied with what they were given. As a result, they were left to fight it out amongst themselves, and a century later, they still are. So, yes, this war rages on and on, and will continue to do so until the underlying causes of their frustrations are addressed. I see it difficult to properly appease all sides, but something more needs to be done – something more than finger (and missile) pointing.
You’re certainly correct that bombing Gaza won’t deprive Hamas of the will to continue bombing Israel.
Are you suggesting that there is something that Israel can do that will change Hamas’ intent?
What’s so troubling about (a) Israel’s decision to attempt to destroy Hamas militarily and (b) the U.S. media’s unwillingness to put this latest round into context–historical, moral, and strategic–is the dreadful redundancy of it all. Age-old conflict, maybe. But each iteration of Israel’s attempt to starve, bludgeon and bomb the Palestinians into acceptance of Israel’s power, under the glib rubric of of its right to exist, produces at best short run satisfaction for Israel and its American Amen Chorus, and longer run grief.
This time the blockade that’s reduced Gazans to penury and misery and, along with Israel’s increased attacks, probably motivated Hamas to resume the rocketry and eschew the humiliating cease-fire, were essentially Israel’s actions. The Hamas rockets were, it seems, the Gazans only way to reacquire a modicum of world attention to their suffering.
So, the NYT and other U.S. media that accept Israel’s justification for this attack as motivated solely by self-defense are willfully and morally blind. Let’s hope that Obama will rise above the bogus, narrow-minded and short-sighted, rhetoric and bring a cooler, more humane attention to the situation and help Israel discover not only what’s good for the Palestinians but also for itself.
When will they ever learn?
trashandsend
Your criticism of Israel makes sense. But excusing Hamas’ rocket attacks as a cry for help is moral blindness also.
There’s a dreadful redundancy in trying to place all blame on one side or the other.
There’s also a ‘terrible moral blindness’ sanctioning murder when it is committed by governments with given boundaries and ‘regular forces’ against captives without either. Pretty uniforms do not make justice.