THE TIDE OF WAR TURNS:16TH DAY OF ASSYMETRIC WAFARE BETWEEN HAMAS AND ISRAEL.MORE THAN 800 PALESTINIANS DEAD;LESS THAN 20 ISRAELI FATALITIES:WHO WILL REIN IN THE DOGS OF WAR?
SKY NEWS [US]
1. Hamas Defiant As Gaza Pounded
http://uk.news. yahoo.com/ 5/20090111/ twl-hamas- defiant-as- gaza-pounded- 3fd0ae9.html
REUTERS
2.Israel and Hamas vow to fight on in Gaza
http://uk.news. yahoo.com/ 22/20090111/ tpl-uk-palestini ans-israel- c3c492c.html
I would like to know how Hamas is survivng this
onslaught.They have been bombed continuously for 16
day by air,sea and land.They have no aircraft with
which to intercept Israeli planes.They have no
anti-aircraft weapons.They have no radar.As far as I
know there has been no Israeli aircraft casualty.The
Palestinians have been bombarded from the sea.They
have no sea power.They do not have weapons that can
reach the Israeli ships.They have been shelled by
artillery.They have no artillery to respond with.They
have been shelled by tanks.I understand they have
ant-tank weapons and mortars,rockets and rocket
launchers and I expect,machine guns.
Someone has written that they have used their forces
selectively and conservatively. It also appears that
they might not have been taken as much by surprise as
some commentators had thought.
As it is,their,in my view,largely symbolic firing of
rockets into Israel has not stopped.The Israeli side
is facing a a critical challenge here.Their recent
warning that violence will escalate suggests
that,after two weeks ,they might be moving into phase
three of a struggle that began with massive
bombardment from the air,the land and the sea.The
second phase was committing ground troops, armoured
units and perhaps infantry,on foot.A third phase might
be to engage even more directly with their opponents
by the rugged urban fighting that some commentators
claim is the only way to complete the job of breaking
the will of Hamas or ending its fighting capability
and rendering it politically irrelevant .It would
seem that the unstated Israeli aim is to achieve this
so as to reshape the character of any future political
manoeuvres,making sure that a fait accompli is in
place before the new US President is sworn in.That
President Elect,anyway, has declared the usual US
determination to isolate Hamas,a resolve mentioned
again in the last week,in spite of his claim to desist
from speaking on the conflict because he has not
assumed office yet.It would seem that the rumours
that he wants to talk to Hamas forced his hand to
declare publicly against the possibility of such
sacrilege.
As it is,it would seem that the situation,to my view
and my hope,is fast rendering the US role in the
conflict of increasingly less relevance.A biased
arbitrator is worse than useless,he is dangerous.The
US continues to insist that it will not recognise or
even talk to Hamas until it recognises Israel's right
to exist,renounces terrorism and abides by all
previous peace agreements.Absolute bullshit,in my
view.
Israel is a geographical and racial anomaly that needs
to be rethought.Its presence can only be guaranteed by
accommodation and agreement with its Arab neighbours
not by force as has been the perspective that seems to
have been most relevant in its founding and
persistence. It is also fitting to ask,as someone has
suggested,what Israel should be recognised,since its
borders have unilaterally expanded since they were
drawn and imposed by the partition of Palestine and
subsequent founding of the state in 1948.My knowledge
of these issues is basic but I think and hope I am
not going too far beyond my competence to judge.
As for not using terror,I am opposed to suicide
bombing,a ,method used by Hamas in the past.It
devalues human life,to me.I understand the logic of
desperation and martyrdom that might fuel it but do
not identify with it,including its use in resisting an
occupier,as Israel is.But my opponent cannot be
armed,and continually rearmed and by you,the US and
you insist I should neither arm nor fight.Because any
action by Hamas,since its govt is unrecognised in
spite of its adherence to the holy grail of democracy
which was Bush's major and much abused ideological
tool,any combative actions by Hamas represent
terrorism.Of course,we must bot speak of similar
tactics used by the Zionist founders of ISRAEL in
their struggle for a state,Menachem Begin and the
Irgun,Yitzhak Shamir and the Stern Gang.
As for recognising past agreements,the justice of
those agreements is thrown in doubt by Jewish
observers and participants in the so called peace
process,by Americans and by Palestinians. I think the
whole thing should start afresh without US who has not
always been a non-partisan broker.
As it is,Hamas,if I'm reading the media and political
responses right,is winning that legitimacy for itself
by determined fighting.The US and its allies in this
can insist all they want but it seems they have been
checkmated by Hamas wisdom in participating in the
electoral process,an election they won,gaining a
mandate the West has tried to overturn without
success.Israel' s failure to wipe out these troublesome
pests who wont go away in spite of such terrible power
being directed against them also means that the US and
its ridiculous partisan policies represent wishful
thinking and little more.
The greater challenge for the Palestinians might not
be the Israeli barrage,which, in my view,has failed.It
is the question of how they are to move forward since
their elected government faces a challenge from the
rival Fatah who was encouraged by the West not to
accept the wishes of the Palestinians as expressed
through their own elections which brought Hamas to
power.
As it is,Israel is still locked in the colonialist
mentality.That mentality,however, .will be shaken if
Hamas does not capitulate decisively this week.The era
of Israeli absolute deterrence based on past victories
will be over.If you cannot flush out a guerilla army
in such a small strip of land,then perhaps you should
enter into discussions with them about mutual
accommodation.
IMAGE
RAIN OF ISRAELI SHELLS ON GAZA
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