Israel Prepares for Long War in Gaza as Both Sides Suffer Most Casualties Yet -- Ilene Prusher & Hazem Balousha, Time
Israeli leaders are preparing for a drawn-out invasion of Gaza even as casualties on both sides hit their peak
If you look at most maps of Gaza, you won’t find the neighborhood of Shujaiyeh on it. But the name of the neighborhood on the eastern edge of Gaza City will likely go down in history as a particularly horrific point in a war between Israel and Hamas that only seems to get bloodier and more bitter by the day.
Each side has its own story, and they differ so substantially that it is almost a déjà vu of the terrible bloodshed in the West Bank city of Jenin in 2002: Palestinians called it a massacre, Israelis said it was a battle.
This much is clear: the Israeli army laid siege to the Gaza neighborhood of Shujaiyeh late Saturday night and throughout the early hours on Sunday, shelling it with artillery blasts as well as air strikes and helicopter fire. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers also went in on foot and had heavy exchanges of automatic gunfire with Hamas militants. At least 501 Palestinians have been killed, according to figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The IDF also released its grim death toll: 13 soldiers were killed in the fighting.
Read more ....
My Comment: Preparing for a long war ?!?!?! As long as I have been alive there has been nothing but war and conflict in this part of the world.
5 comments:
postroad@hotmail.com
From the Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement aka HAMAS
'Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.'
'Peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement... Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam... There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility.'
Fred Lapides, Thank you for providing the statement from Hamas.
1. As long as Hamas and similar Islamists rule, there will be no peace. With opponents such as these, there can be no peace treaty for Israel. I doubt that any outsider, even Iran, has the leverage on Hamas' leaders to compel them stop fighting.
2. Hamas has two goals: (a) to cause as many Israeli casualties as possible; and (b) to cause as many casualties as possible among their own civilians. Goal (a) is designed to make the Israelis sicken of the fighting and prepare them to quit. Goal (b) is designed to create international (especially American) pressure to force Israel to stop. It is important to note that Hamas' strategy has worked before; in previous invasions of Gaza, Israel was forced to stop by a combination of (a) and (b). Hamas wants to use this fighting to improve its position for the next round of the war it proclaims in its statement.
3. Israel's goals are (a) to kill as many of Hamas' fighters as possible, (b) to destroy as much of Hamas' military weapons and infrastructure as possible, and (c) to show the civilian residents of Gaza that all the fighting did not improve their position. Hamas' harsh rhetoric quoted above is small practical comfort if your house is wrecked, you have nothing to eat, etc. However, I think that the Gaza residents are unlikely to turn against their Hamas rulers, who run their own little totalitarian state in Gaza.
4. Israel can also escalate the fight by killing Hamas' leaders. Both sides can assassinate each other's leaders, and so far Israel has not used this tactic.
5. It is important to note that Western, and especially American, influence is over Israel, not Hamas. Given Hamas' intransigence, I do not understand why our Secretary of State is going to the Middle East now. I honestly do not see much room for any diplomacy at the moment.
6. The conflict will be ready for diplomacy when (i) Israel achieves enough of its goals outlined in 3 that it is willing to stop, or (ii) Hamas achieves enough of its goals outlined in 2 that Israel is resigned to stopping, or the West is ready to force Israel to stop.
7. In my view, neither Hamas nor Israel have achieved enough of their respective goals that it is ready to stop this episode of the longer war. Israel presumably has its list of Hamas weapons and infrastructure that it is methodically demolishing. Hamas has not caused enough Israeli casualties or enough civilian Palestinian casualties yet to persuade the West to force Israel to stop. While the recent Israeli casualties and the evident Israeli shelling of a Gaza hospital today will cause joy within Hamas, the shoot-down of the Malaysian airliner is a great stroke of luck for Israel: most Western press attention is on the airliner tragedy and not on the Gaza war.
8. As a practical matter, Israel has at least another week or so to continue its operation in Gaza. Even if some horrible tragedy happened today, suppose Israel bombs a Gaza orphanage and kill hundred of children, for example, it would take several days to arrange a truce. Hamas' repeated rejections of proposed truces, and statement above, do not make a truce likely in the near future.
Publius,
The wild card I see out there is Israel going for 100% occupation of Gaza on a temporary basis.
First things first .... Fred has a great website that I enjoy going to when I need a diversion from everything. Shame on me .... I do not promote it enough.
http://extragoodshit.phlap.net/
He is usually also critical of some of the stuff that I post .... he may not know it but I have always loved his constructive criticism.
Publius, you are right about #5. I also do not understand why John Kerry is going there now. The Israeli - Hamas situation has to work itself out, and while it is unfortunate that many innocent lives are going to be lost .... now is not the time for diplomacy.
James .... a 100% occupation of Gaza .... if I was an Israeli I would be having a migraine attack right now.
"James .... a 100% occupation of Gaza .... if I was an Israeli I would be having a migraine attack right now."
Maybe so. But because I agree with Publius's above analysis I think Israel cannot just act as they always have in this round of the "Peace Process". Every time Hamas's overall position has improved and this time they've come very close with their rockets and tunnels to significant victories that the Israeli's cannot afford. A nearly complete degrading of Hamas would not be final victory, but would buy a lot of time.
Also, and I think this weighs heavily on the Israeli planners, ISIS is coming and probably soon. Israel might feel it needs to defeat a near enemy before it must deal with the coming far enemy.
Post a Comment