tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16816866.post4153361837200619777..comments2024-02-29T02:10:56.878-08:00Comments on J O S H U A P U N D I T: Gaza:A Tale Of Selective Morality and Tribal WarfareFreedom Fighterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13649470110087808596noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16816866.post-68546013504032847902009-01-06T15:13:00.000-08:002009-01-06T15:13:00.000-08:00It leads me to wonder exactly what's going on. Are...<B>It leads me to wonder exactly what's going on. Are Olmert and company merely trying to batter Hamas into another phony ceasefire that isn't one? Or is the plan for Israel to destroy Hamas and invade Gaza in order to hand it over to Abbas and Fatah?</B><BR/><BR/>Have you considered that Olmert and company needed the invasion of Lebanon and Gaza in order to counter domestic problems such as netanyahu's power base?<BR/><BR/><B>- which would explain Egypt's anti-Hamas stance on the matter so far.Mubarak has no real reason to have any sympathy for Hamas, an Iranian proxy and an offshoot of Egypt's radical Muslim Brotherhood.</B><BR/><BR/>If regime change is the goal, then I prefer John Bolton's strategy of giving the Wes tBank to Jordan and Gaza to Egypt. Or rather "forcing" them there.<BR/><BR/><B>If that indeed is what Olmert, Barak and Livni have in mind,they're tragically mistaken if they think it will be a step towards peace.<BR/><BR/>Israel will get absolutely no love from the Muslim world or from the EU for this, simply because it's Israel.</B><BR/><BR/>But if Olmert only cares about his domestic power base then international opinion wouldn't matter in his calculations, Joshua.<BR/><BR/><B>To them, the hated Jews will have just participated in overthrowing a democratically elected Hamas government most of them voted for to install a corrupt and despised Fatah overlord.</B><BR/><BR/>If Israel topples Hamas and replaces them with Fatah, then how will Israel ever have the justification to declare total war against a lawfully elected Government? They will forever be limited to "assassinations" and unconventional warfare. And that has worked out not so well for Israel over the decades.<BR/><BR/><B><BR/>Rather than spilling blood doing Abbas' and Condi Rice's dirty work, the IDF should eliminate the threat to Israel's south once and for all. That involves a full scale war aimed at driving Hamas out of Gaza for good by exterminating as many of its fighters and leadership as it can get its hands on,using whatever means necessary.</B><BR/><BR/>If Hamas is the elected government of Gaza and if Israel declares war on Gaza, then all the civilians in Gaza become collateral damage if they are used as human shields by Hamas. Meaning, there at least becomes the legal justification to take them out and that justificaton is that whatever civilian casualties that results from a war is the primary responsibility of the host government. In this case, it would be Hamas, since they are responsible for the lives of their own civilians. If they want them to stop dying, they should surrender. They will never stop using them as human shields, but calling on them to surrender and when they don't surrender, does give Israel a good pretext to keep bombing Hamas without giving them "warnings" on their cell phones.<BR/><BR/><B>And had it been done years ago, things would be very different today.</B><BR/><BR/>if they had somebody like President Bush in charge, they would have done. But they don't have somebody like President Bush in charge.Ymarsakarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11246906722493964175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16816866.post-22961394014129029562009-01-01T21:31:00.000-08:002009-01-01T21:31:00.000-08:00Thanks Deb...very much.I'm pretty much convinced t...Thanks Deb...very much.<BR/><BR/>I'm pretty much convinced that th escenario I've envisioned will be enacted anyway if Israel is going to survive.<BR/><BR/>A couple of days after the Oslo photo-op,Yasir Arafat went on Jordanian TV and explanied that he had signed Oslo just to get a foothold in the territory and to fool the Jews. He said,almost verbatim that either the Jews would push Fatah into the sea or the Arabs would push the Jews into the sea, underlining that this was a tribal war that was not going to end with coexistence.<BR/><BR/>Not much has changed, and it's about time Israel realized it.<BR/><BR/>Best Wishes for the New Year,<BR/>RobFreedom Fighterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13649470110087808596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16816866.post-46772123062737382742009-01-01T18:32:00.000-08:002009-01-01T18:32:00.000-08:00Amazing article. I agree, if things had been done...Amazing article. <BR/><BR/>I agree, if things had been done differently years ago, things would be very different today. But alas, we cannot go back and undo anything. We have to work with what we have, a terrible situation for Israel.<BR/><BR/>Debbie Hamilton<BR/><A HREF="http://www.righttruth.typepad.com" REL="nofollow">Right Truth</A>Right Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18274108313586611205noreply@blogger.com