Israel launches attacks into Gaza; several hundred killed

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 100 dead

So far, the casualty count is the usual 100-1.

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 100 dead

I really wonder how either Hamas or Israel can really think rocket attacks are the answer here.
The common narrative is that Israel is the "responsible older brother" while the PLO and Hamas are the incorrigible brats. I think if anything is going to forge a peace in the Middle East it will have to provide an incentive other than being able to ride a bus or start a car without worrying that it will explode. Why not carve out a piece of Iraq for Hamas? Provide foreign aid contingent on an annual body count under 100?

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 100 dead

I am commenting, EF, on the fact that, every time this happens, Hamas launches a rocket that kills nobody, or very few people, apparently in the hopes that THIS TIME, the rockets will change the political equation to their advantage. Israel thereupon massively over-retaliates, piling up the customary 100-1 kill ratio and solving absolutely nothing, but creating another generation of recruits to fire more rockets at it. And on and on. What your second sentence means will take some clarification, because it sounds a great deal like you're trying to position me as anti-Semitic. If not, please explain.

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 100 dead

In 1998 I still lived in Jamaica. I was watching CNN interview Tom Clancy.

He said a line in relation to war that's always stuck with me: "If you're going to attack, you ATTACK!" or something very close to that.

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 100 dead

If you don't believe that Israel's killing 100 people in Gaza -- or Lebanon, to name another example, when, retaliating against hezbollah, the IDF reduced to rubble the hometown of the Maronite Christian patriarch -- to every one of its citizens who dies has a material effect on the chances of a political solution, then I respectfully say that you're wrong. Massive retaliation against civilian areas inevitably turns whoever shoots back into heroes and, unless you're prepared to slaughter everyone, to essentially commit genocide on a massive scale, there's no way to change that calculation, I think there are several historical parallels to back me up, most notably in Ireland during the Anglo-Irish War of 1919-21, and Vietnam in both its French and American iterations.

And, frankly, if there somebody who treats war like a hockey game more than that tin-soldier wanker Tom Clancy, I don't know who it is.

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 100 dead

That is one of guiding principles of SunTzu's "The Art of War" .

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 100 dead

I think Israel has made it quite clear that it has the right to blow the shit out of any place at any time. Blowing up the hometown of the Maronite patriarch -- miles from where Hezbollah had any presence at all -- convinced me of that. More to the point, however, is that this strategy never works out in the long run. People do not blame the other people who got killed around them. They blame the people who dropped the fucking bombs.

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 100 dead

I used a message-board shorthand. Nothing more.
And I would like someone to explain how you stop people -- many of whom are not Hamas -- from firing rockets by deliberately decapitating the entire Hamas security infrastructure within Gaza.