Tough Love for Gaza: Reconstruction Makes No Sense -Efraim Inbar
Western leaders seem to have decided that Gaza should speedily be rebuilt. This, of course, sends the wrong signal. It tells Palestinians that their leadership can make grave, deadly mistakes, and nevertheless Westerners will bail them out. It also signals to Hamas that it can continue shooting. There is no way to reconstruct Gaza without strengthening Hamas, and the reconstruction of Hamastan - an Iranian base that threatens Israel and many moderate Arab regimes - makes no strategic sense.
Furthermore, all polls show staggering support among Gazans for violence against Israelis. Why should the international community and Israel help people that support Hamas - an organization intent on destroying the Jewish state?
(Jerusalem Post)
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After U.S. Request, Israel Agrees to Let $43 Million into Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to allow the transfer of $43 million to Gaza to pay salaries there.
Sources in Israel said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telephoned Olmert to press him to release the money, describing this as the first instance of U.S. pressure on Israel since President Obama took office.
(Reuters)
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There May Be the Will But Not Necessarily the Way -Greg Sheridan
There is no evidence of any Israeli war crimes or atrocities in Gaza. [O]n countless previous occasions Palestinian eye-witness accounts have been fabricated. Remember the reports of the so-called massacre in the West Bank town of Jenin in 2002, reports buttressed by eye-witness accounts? [I]t never took place, as later international investigations acknowledged.
Even in this recent Gaza operation, remember the outrage at the Israeli rocket fire on the school in the Jabaliya refugee camp? Now it turns out no Israeli munition ever hit the school.
Hamas has engaged in countless atrocities against Palestinians it doesn't like. It has murdered many Fatah men, but the media subjects this behavior to very little scrutiny. Hamas is somehow accepted as just a force of nature, not held morally responsible for its actions.
(The Australian)
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Israeli Tactics in the Gaza War -Tim McGirk & Aaron J. Klein
"There was never a single incident in which a unit of Hamas confronted our soldiers," one Israel Defense Forces official says.
"Hamas and Hizbullah are worried that Israel has broken the DNA code of urban fighting," says reserve Brig. Gen. Shalom Harari. Officers say that Hamas had prepared a defensive wall using "hundreds of explosives, mines and booby-traps." But Israeli forces, avoiding the main roads, were able to go around it, then methodically dismantled Hamas' defenses.
(TIME)
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Roadmaps to Middle East Peace? -Victor Davis Hanson
Presidents Carter, Reagan, Clinton and the two Bushes tried to do the same so-called "land for peace" deal: Israel is supposed to go back to something approaching the pre-1967 borders, and the Palestinians, with their brand-new state, must promise that this time they will really let Israel be. Good luck.
(San Jose Mercury News)
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1 comment:
A lot packed in this post and I have been very busy lately which makes it hard to blog myself, much less keep up with the whirlwind pace of this fine blog!! Certainly, rebuilding Gaza right now makes no sense and would be a crime against peace loving people everywhere. And yes, the world must hold Hamas and Iran tot ask for what they do, before yelling at Israel for what goes on while defending itself.
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