40 days after war, Hamas rule of Gaza gaining legitimacy

[ProgressiveMuslim]

By Aluf Benn, Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff

Tags: gaza, hamas, israel news

Three rockets fell Thursday in the area around the Gaza Strip, one in the yard of a Sderot home - just a few reminders that Israel is still far from its declared goal in Operation Cast Lead. Discussion about the military operation's outcome revolves around the term "deterrence."

If Israel can enshrine Cast Lead in a long-term agreement, the war will be remembered as a success. But fears are mounting that the operation's military achievements are dissipating. If so, the operation will go down in history as a less-than-successful round in a long war in the Gaza Strip.

The Israel Defense Forces left Gaza with the feeling that it had proven itself, after its debacle in Lebanon in 2006. But it seems that the bottom line will have to wait. In Lebanon, too, it took several months before it could be concluded that although the IDF made mistakes, enough deterrence against Hezbollah was achieved to prevent renewed fighting.
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Barak, who was quick to criticize what went wrong in Lebanon, followed Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's lead in withdrawing from Gaza without a real agreement. But like in Lebanon, faced with only an aerial attack or one followed by a ground operation, Israel chose the middle ground and acted slowly and partially. Because in Gaza the enemy was less determined than in Lebanon, the move first appeared to be a victory. Only when the IDF left could the results of the war be seen as limited, with almost daily attacks near the fence, a continuing "drizzle" of rockets and information on renewed arms smuggling.

The blow Hamas was dealt has only led to increased admiration for the group, according to opinion polls in the territories. Hamas is still waiting for another crowning achievement: if abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is released for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

However, the army is currently reviewing its performance during the war and an encouraging picture is emerging in terms of its professionalism, control over units, aerial assistance to ground forces, quality of intelligence and logistics compared to the Second Lebanon War.


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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1067318.html

[GoesTo11]

1. May the Gazans enjoy the blessing of Hamas for ever and ever

In spite of Cast Lead, the Gazans are the luckiest people in the world because they have Hamas, the most loving and wisest government in the world. Life will be very good for the Gazans now.

[Crunchy Frog]

2. Sounds like Israel maybe got what they wanted out of this.

A legitimization for an iron fist, forever. After all, the Gazans deserve it, asked for it, and have it coming. A handful of firecrackers in Sderot is amall price for the Israeli people to pay.

[GoesTo11]

3. If so, it's a case of "be careful what you wish for"

[LeftishBrit]

4. Don't know about 'wanted', but could have predicted by the Law of Unintended Consequences

For a long time, I've been saying that new settlement creations and aggressive military action toward Gaza were Israel's donations to a Hamas revival. And that every rocket from Gaza was a donation to Netanyahu's election campaign.

Looks like the donations on both sides have worked as could have been predicted, though not intended. Sad.

[Sezu]

8. Time for a 3 state solution. n/t

[azurnoir]

10. WHY? n/t

[Vegasaurus]

13. Because Hamas and Fatah can't find unity

on anything, least of all peace with Israel.

Fatah might agree.

Hamas won't.

Let the WB have a better life then, and their own state, and the cesspool of Gaza fester under Hamas, if that is their choice.

[azurnoir]

15. The fact is Hamas and Fatah are it talks right now

although I do understand the desire to see the Palestinians as weakened as possible.

[oberliner]

6. A handful of firecrackers?

Now that is serious propaganda.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

11. Firecrackers compared to what Gazans experienced, anyway.

And all in all, a price the gov'ts of Israel are willing to pay in order to continue the unconscionable status quo -- which considering the exponential settlement expansion -- is not exactly STATIC, is it?

[Tripmann]

5. "40 days after war, Hamas rule of Gaza gaining legitimacy"

Actually, 40 seconds after the Gazans elected them, Hamas rule of gaza gained legitimacy.

I do agree, however, with the fact that hamas gained from the Israeli slaughter.

[bemildred]

7. The Gaza War was a total fail.

I submit the weak arguments advanced here that it was not as evidence for my view. But more to the point, one cannot name one of the explicit or implicit goals of the war which can be unambiguously said to have been achieved. Kadima did better than expected, the Israeli casualites can be said to be comparatively light, and that's it. Meanwhile the political costs will be being counted and totalled up for a long time.

[pelsar]

12. i can recall one specific goal that was mentioned...

to "change the game".....in other words the gaza attack was a nothing more than a gamble to change to status quo and clarify israeli responses as no longer "limited"

beyond that one of the wiser statements i heard was that.....the consequences will be felt later, long after the tanks have left, and no one can predict what they will actually be.

[bemildred]

14. Yeah, and Shalit, and destroy Hamas, and restore deterrence, and so on.

There was a long list that was mentioned at one time or another. It's easy enough to go back and look, but not that rewarding. I agree that a lot remains to be seen, and it's going to be hard to sort out effects of the war and effects of the changes in administrations now going on. But it's hard for me to see anything that would be worse for anybody now had a more conciliatory line been taken.

[azurnoir]

9. Well in terms of "destroying" Hamas the war was an

"epic fail", the EU and America are now saying that Hamas must be part of peace negotiations and reunification talks are going on between Hamas and Fatah in Egypt right now with an agreement by both sides to release at least some of each other prisoners as a good will gesture, the question I guess is how much of this is an "unintended consequence" of Israel's attack on Gaza and how much is thew change of administration in the US.