In War of the rockets, Jackson Diehl writes:
For months now, Israel has been mired in an unwinnable war against Hamas and allied militias in Gaza, who fire missiles at civilians in Israel and then hide among their own women and children, ensuring that retaliatory fire will produce innocent victims for the Middle East’s innumerable satellite television networks. A growing number of the militiamen have been to Iran for training, and some of the missiles they launch are Iranian-made. Their objective is obvious: to exhaust Israelis with an endless war of attrition while making it impossible for Israel’s government to reach a political settlement with the more moderate Palestinian administration in the West Bank.
First of all, when Diehl writes “unwinnable” he means “unwinnable using current tactics.” There are those who disagree that it’s unwinnable.
Senior IDF officers serving in Gaza are frustrated over what they describe as the army’s lack of resolve and limited action against terror emanating from the Strip.“This week I returned from another standby shift at the combat helicopter base where I do my reserve duty,†lit.-Col. N told Ynet. “Again we did nothing, despite a Qassam and mortar barrage fired by terrorists at the entire sector.â€
N says that he feels obligated to warn that the IDF is not doing enough to counter terrorism from Gaza.
“The Gaza Strip is a narrow area, almost entirely closed off, the terrorist forces are relatively small and their weapons – although they are improving every day as a result of our lack of action – still don’t constitute a significant threat to our forces.
(h/t Meryl)
Also Hamas’s objective isn’t to prevent a peace agreement, it’s objective is to kill as many Israelis as it can.
I don’t think that Hamas opposes a peace agreement with Israel as it will undoubtedly give it more power than it already has. Hamas knows that Israel is anxious to conclude a deal with Abbas, regardless of the rockets. It persists because it knows that Israeli responses generally mean that Israel must defend itself usually to the scorn of the world. So Hamas not only get to kill Israelis, destroy their homes but gets a bonus too.
Given that the explosion in Gaza has now been shown to be the result of a secondary explosion not an Israeli missile, Diehl should have acknowledged as much at the start of his article.
In both these assertions, Diehl is imposing his own views onto events.
Elder of Ziyon outlined the evidence. Yaacov Lozowick wrote about why it’s important. (The NYT deserves credit for reporting this result too.)
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
