RSSBracing for Israel’s Next Gaza Attack
This from my latest in the National:
There were no winners in the Gaza war that Israel launched a year ago today, but no shortage of losers. And failure to address its underlying causes – the economic siege through which Israel, Egypt and the US hope to force Hamas from power, and that organisation’s ability to respond by firing rockets into Israel – means that far from anyone learning the lessons of the brutal folly that was Operation Cast Lead, a repeat may be imminent.
Although it killed up to 1,400 Palestinians and left tens of thousands homeless while losing only 10 of its own men (four to “friendly fire”), one of the world’s most powerful armies failed to achieve its main objective – to destroy Hamas’s military and political infrastructure…
…But a year later, Hamas remains in uncontested control of the territory, and not only retains the capacity to fire rockets into Israel, but has forced Israel to consider releasing 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the captive soldier Gilad Shalit. Operation Cast Lead also cost Israel dearly on the political and diplomatic front. Its senior officials have to think twice before visiting a number of western countries for fear of arrest on war crimes charges, and that even allies such as the US and Britain have urged Israel to investigate the war crimes allegations raised by Judge Richard Goldstone underscores just how sharply the operation tilted international public opinion against Israel. The European Union is now talking of recognising Palestinian statehood based on the 1967 borders, underscoring an impatience with the Israelis unknown during the Ariel Sharon era…
…Tempting as it may be to see the possible Shalit swap as a sign that Israel and Hamas are finally learning to engage and seek a more stable coexistence, that would be a mistake. Having failed to defeat Hamas and then been forced (by Israeli public opinion demanding the soldier’s safe return) to free 1,000 Palestinian prisoners is a bitter pill for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. In the minds of Israel’s hawks, the country’s vaunted “deterrence” would require that Hamas be made to pay a heavy price for forcing the prisoner exchange on Israel. Giving Hamas a second victory by lifting the siege may be too much for them to countenance.
So it ought to surprise no one if, in the weeks and months ahead, there is an increase in Israeli air strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza, while efforts to end the blockade are stymied, ultimately provoking Hamas to hit back with its own rocket strikes – opening another round of fighting.
The Latest
Glancing Headers
World Cup 2010
For a variety of reasons, I ended up watching the World Cup Final on a TV tied to a tree at the soccer fields in the Red Hook section of BrooklynRebellion Into Money
How Slovenia Wins the World CupGuest Columns
How I Overcame My Jewish-Evangelical Upbringing and Learned to Love Christmas, Anyway
Guest Column: Gavin Evans Back in the day, when Gavin and I were young activists trying to change the world, the doorbell rang at our Observatory student house. I opened it to see a tall and handsome man in the silky purple shirt and dog collar of an Anglican Bishop. "You must be Tony," said Bis...Featured Analysis
Does Obama Have a Mideast Plan B?
It's hardly surprising that President Barack Obama chose to schedule a White House visit by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the dead of night on Monday, because right now Obama has little to show for his 10-month effort to revive a Middle East peace process. The Israeli leader's refu...Unholy War
Who Lost Fatah?
‘Who lost China?” was the battle cry of a witch-hunt conducted in the US State Department following the 1949 victory of Mao Zedong’s communists. The department’s “China hands”, critics charged, had been woefully ignorant of the dynamics at work on the ground in China after the Second W...A Skeptical Read
More Iran Hysteria from the NY Times
The surest sign that another neocon bill of goods is being hawked in respect of the Iran "nuclear peril" is the revival of Rumsfeld-esque "unknowable unknowns", a la Iraq WMD panic circa late 2002. In the real world, of course, solid progress is being made towards a plausible diplomatic deal to ...99c Blogging
The 'Metrics' of Obama's Vietnam
Why is the Administration conducting a "test run" for its metrics of success in Afghanistan? Because the metrics used will be those that provide the desired verdictHear! Hear!
Helena Cobban Explains FatahIf I Was a Blogger...
More Dennis Ross Dissembling
Obama's Iran point man can't seem to get his head around the reasons for Israeli emigrationA Wondering Jew
Obama, Foxman and Israel's Purpose
Having spent decades drumming home the idea that Israel is rooted squarely in the Holocaust experience, and should be viewed by the world as the state of the survivors, Israelis and some of their most fervent backers in the U.S. are suddenly insisting that this is a misleading, even hostile idea.Annals of Globalization
The Shebab, the Shahids and the Champion's League Final
The Shebab gunman on the left appears to be a Gunner, i.e. an Arsenal fan... In honor of today's Champion's League final, I republish my op ed that ran in the National a year ago. What was most fascinating about the photograph of the Somali gunman who was part of the crowd dragging the body...The Whole World's Africa
Congo's Not Africa's WWI, It's Worse Than That
If there is a European analogy to be applied in the Congo, it would be the brutal Thirty Year War in Germany that ended in 1648Shameless Cronyism
Embedded with the Jihadis
My crazy friend Nir Rosen goes on embed with the Taliban, and finds out just why the U.S. can't win in AfghanistanCould Die Laughing
Whatever Became of that Nice Mr. Blair...
The problem with a global conversation between Muslims and Christians refereed by Tony Blair? Two words: Tony Blair.The 51st State
A Teachable Moment in Basra
It should come as no surprise that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's disastrous offensive against the Mahdi Army of Moqtada Sadr in Basra has had the exact opposite effect of that intended -- strengthening rather than weakening Sadr, and making clear that he, and the Iranians, have far greater in...Futures Market
Will Russia Partition Kosovo?
Why my tea-leaf reading suggests that Moscow has a nasty surprise in store for Washington in the BalkansCuisine
Yummy yummy Umami
Why a leftover lamb bone turned a bean stew into an ecstatic eventHousekeeping
'Lost' Entries on Rootless Cosmopolitan
Previous entries that now register as "not available" are ones that got left behind in a server migration. We're working on retrieving themNew York Moments
The Debka Made ‘Em Do ItFrom Tony's Archive
A Playground Lesson for Bush
How a spontaneous alliance of jocks, do-gooders and lesser bullies against the biggest bully at the school changed the balance of power at Milnerton Primary
13 Responses to “Bracing for Israel’s Next Gaza Attack”
[...] example place here: Rootless Cosmopolitan – By Tony Karon » Blog Archive » Bracing for … Share and [...]
It’s always tit for tat with Israel and the Palestinians. They decimated them last December; is this what they will try again to see if they can drag the U.S. into another war situation like they did in Iraq? Israel wants to anialate the Palestinian people, that has always been their goal.
Gaza 2009: We Will Never Forget
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9mkRiGbgZg
“But a year later, Hamas remains in uncontested control of the territory, and not only retains the capacity to fire rockets into Israel
Rocket fire reduced from 2000 per year in 2008 to 116 per year since the end of operation cast lead. Total failure for Israel.
You are bonkers if you think Israel is going to start bombing Gaza for Gilad Shilat.
Gaza newspaper documents the “brutal siege”
http://www.paltoday.com/arabic/News-64161.html&hl=en&langpair=auto%7Cen&tbb=1&ie=windows-1256
Definitely Israel who will initiate a new confrontation.
Gaza militants fire Grad rocket into Netivot
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1139142.html
Tony Karon is a self-hating Jew, an anti-Zionist and an anti-Semite, perfect for Time magazine. I’m probably talking to an empty room because it looks like very few people read this fool’s hatred and garbage. No wonder Time’s paid circulation keeps dropping and is limited to the leftists.
We love a bit of Tony Karon in NZ - the usual media sources are fairly limited in what they can and do report compared with experiences of journalists on the ground so it’s good to get a broad oversight of things.
Reading Stan’s rebuttal tells me Tony’s on to something. “Not true to his ‘race’”? We’ve heard that before…
oooo very bad
why whyy???
Well I just found this blog. I will be back again, and again. I will also direct some of my friends here. Glad to see that there is a sane voice in the wilderness.
Everyone will note the acquiescence of the US and UK to Israel’s murder of the leader of Hamas recently. Hamas - the party of the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. They (US & UK) ignore the crime of murder in the first degree - and carry on about the illegal use of UK passports for the operation.
TO FIX ALL OF THIS - go to ‘YouTube’ search keyword - TVOTW888. “British Election - 2010″ - in 4 parts. View sequentially - of course.
THEN - go to “Bring ‘Em On” - in 11 parts.
THEN - email, Facebook and Twitter everyone and anyone you know with the above ‘YouTube’ keyword link.
THEN - give your unqualified support to - The Global Fund
The Zionist owned & controlled mass media refuse to provide the TRUTH & the TRUE FACTS to the people of the world as to the crimes of the Blair/Brown/Bush Neo Cons. This media is complicit in everything they have done.
ONLY YOU - by giving your support to The Global Fund can stop it - and see justice done - AND TO STOP THE KILLING!!!
For my Love they are my adversaries…. this has now been fulfiled. Pslam 109:4
Not only Gaza, but also Isaiah 17: is in the near future.
I also suffer from panic attacks and i can manage it by deep and slow breathing. i also practice meditation.. .
Leave a Reply