There were a few commentators who thought it was a genocidal event, one even said it was a genocide. Hamas, some said, reacted to the boycott. There were war crimes – on that, having seen some evidence, I agree, in some instances – and there was, some say, needless brutality (also desecration of the Koran in at least one case, and so on; I am afraid that that aspect has been proved). An allegation that has to be taken seriously is that of Gazans who came out with white flags and were shot at. But of course, even if all that is true – and it ought to be investigated before making blanket accusations – it does not justify the wholesale attack on Israel.
From my point of view, the Gaza fighting (it was far from a war) brought us no advantages whatsoever. Hamas will regain their full murderous capacity within a short time; we did not even manage to stop the arms smuggling, though perhaps it will be more limited, if the Egyptians collaborate. We did manage to do two things: increase the hatred felt for “the Jews” among Gazans, and fortify the Iranian presence.
Iran now has two footholds on the Mediterranean shore, both of them with our generous help: Lebanon, where our 2006 adventure enabled our dear friends of the Hizbullah to more or less capture Lebanon, and Gaza, where the Sunni allies of the radical Shiite Iranian regime are the undisputed sovereigns, having in the last few days murdered most of what remained there of the Fatah elite.
The air strike was, in my humble view, justified and justifiable. The land incursion led to nothing except to the destruction of thousands (!!!) of homes and 600 (roughly) civilian deaths, including 300 children.
In my view, the whole Western and Israeli concentration on the Iranian nuclear issue is totally skewed. If they want to have a bomb, they will have it, sooner or later, but of course cannot use it, because then their main strategic aim, namely to become the dominant local power in the Middle East will be negated – everyone will turn against them. Also, if they want to use such a bomb against Israel, half a degree mistake in the angle of the path of the missile will annihilate the Palestinian people, and in any case they will have destroyed the Moslem Holy Places in Jerusalem.
The bomb will be used as a threat, as a form of pressure, because the Iranians have two major aims: control of the Gulf, and eliminating Saudi and Egyptian preponderance in the Arab Middle East. The bomb is a clever Iranian diversion. And of course, their ideological agenda is to gain control, first of the ME, then of as much of the world as they can. They believe in it. Hamas is the Sunni version of this, and, intellectually, it is more radical than the Shiite version.
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