No one knows what is going to be the overall fall-out of Protective Edge, but I can tell you with certainty that I still despise the name as translated into English.
It has been very interesting reading the comments in the blogs the last few days. On the left-wing blogs, like Daily Kos, they perpetually lambaste Israel as a racist, apartheid, colonialist, imperialist, militaristic, blood-thirsty, war-mongering, land-stealing, Zionist, racist state.
{I would say that the above description is concise.}
On the right-wing blogs the general feeling is that after so many years of bombardment Israel has a right to hit back and defend itself. The left-wing blogs either do not know, or do not care, about that perpetual bombardment.
It should also be noted that some on the right-wing blogs and on-line magazines are also calling for a Carthaginian Solution.
What I think is that the IDF should carry out its mission in the most humane and efficient manner possible. But what is the mission?
It is apparently to degrade and undermine the ability of Gazan racists to perpetually shoot rockets at their Jewish neighbors. My question is, "does this represent the limits of the goal?" and my suspicion is that it does.
As someone who cares, and who is part of the larger Jewish community, but as someone who lives in cool, cloudy, northern California, I have no direct skin in the game. What I often have in abundance are opinions, but I would very much prefer it if my opinions did not result in dead, young, Israelis.
That being said, the question in my mind is this one.
Hamas?When you think of those brave young men hiding their identities behind ski masks, think the Ku Klux Klan. As the Klan did before them, Hamas represents a racist and violent vanguard of the much larger, hostile majority population.
So, will Israel eliminate Hamas? I feel comfortable in predicting that, no, Israel is not going to take out Hamas. I think that it should but, again, I am in Oakland, California. And, if I am right, what that means is that the emerging pattern in the conflict between Israel and Gaza will continue on into the future.
This is the pattern:
1) Arabs bomb Jews.So, you need to think about what you want.
2) World either does not care or thinks we have it coming.
3) Jews get fed up with seeing their children scamper into bomb shelters as they develop the emotional issues associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
4) Reluctant Israeli government strikes back because no government can simply allow its citizenry to be bombed at will.
5) Europe and western progressives leap from their chairs and clench their fists and scream to the heavens that the Jews of the Middle East are worse than Nazis.
6) Israel backs off and a hudna ensues, pretty much leaving things at the status quo anti.
7) Rinse. Wash. Repeat. Every two years or thereabouts.
Do you want to end this insidious cycle or do you want it to continue?... and that is precisely what I suspect is going to happen.