When the Israeli offensive against Hamas started 18 days back, the comparisons with the 2006 campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon was the first thing that was raised. That campaign, even though caused huge amount of tactical damage to Hezbollah, was a strategic loss for Israel. Hezbollah got a reputation as a fighting force that was able to withstand the huge military advantage of Israel, and bring the much vaunted military machine to a halt (keep in mind that this is the same Israeli military that has consistently defeated the armed forces of its neighbors, right from the time of its birth in 1948). The result of this almost victory by Hezbollah (and managing to survive was seen as a victory) was its gaining in terms of gaining political clout in Lebanon. Now, Hamas is an organization that remains dedicated to the destruction of Israel (and has withstood a huge amount of external pressure to be seen as striking a deal with Israel).
So, there has been a lot of debate about the motives for the current Israeli campaign against Hamas. The chance of having to strike a deal that gives Hamas a cease-fire and the proclaiming power that it has managed to stop Israel in a direct fight was very high; and this was a risk that Israel would have to face. In addition, any fight between Israel and the Palestinians (even a terrorist organization such as Hamas) tends to inflame Muslim popular opinion all around the world and especially in the Muslim countries. Such inflammation of popular opinion tends to prevent the leaders of these countries from opposing Hamas even if they feel that Hamas is following wrong policies.

continue reading "The Gaza offensive likely to end ?"

This has got to be the shortest peace effort in years. Former President Jimmy Carter, who has been preaching peace and settlement for the past few years, probably took on his toughest effort; getting Hamas to say we do ‘recognize Israel’. So it was good to hear him come out and say triumphantly that Hamas seemed to be responsible people with a clarity about what they want, and they have agreed to recognize Israel. However, even before the flowers could stop raining down, the military (and most powerful) Syria based leader of Hamas, Khalid Meshaal, recanted all these terms and laid down the usual demands that Israel and the United States will not accept:

WASHINGTON, April 22 (UPI) — U.S. State Department officials disputed comments made by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter about Hamas’ views about Israel and peace. Hamas leaders, meanwhile, said they could accept a Palestinian state, but contradicted Carter’s statements about accepting Israel’s right to exist if approved by the Palestinian people, The Washington Times reported Tuesday.

continue reading "Hamas contradicts Carter, will not accept Israel"

Israel has suffered for long due to the number of crude rockets fired from Gaza. A city that suffers the most is Sderot, a city only 1 km from Gaza and well within the range of these rockets. In another of these rocket attacks, the Israeli army has now suffered serious damage, with a rocket hitting a tent in which new recruits to the Israeli army were sleeping, and wounding 25 of them, one of them seriously. Before and after the Hamas takeover of Gaza, these rockets continue to hit Israel. Crude, but easily manufactured in workshops in Gaza, the infrastructure of these rockets is not easy to destroy, and they server to continually harass the Israelis, and torment the political leadership. After all, if the much vaunted Israeli army cannot prevent crude rockets from being fired at a regular pace, then the militant groups have a symbolic victory.

Palestinian militants in Gaza fire rockets daily at towns in southern Israel. The crude rockets wreak panic but rarely cause serious casualties. Gaza’s Hamas rulers have not been actively involved, but have done nothing to halt the rocket fire. Tuesday’s attack was the largest number of injuries sustained in a single such attack against Israel.

continue reading "Attack in Israel wounds 25 soldiers"

Another outcome of the infighting between Hamas and Fatah whereby the Fatah movement was kicked out of Gaza due to a combination of superior fighting power of the Hamas armed groups and the weakness of Fatah. In order to make the Fatah based Palestinian Government now controlling only the West Bank as more palatable to the US and other Western Governments, the new policy outlined by the Palestinian Government makes no mention of armed resistance, instead using the concept of popular resistance as a way to confront Israel. As expected, such a step-down has brought derision from Hamas, which refuses to accept the existence of Israel and will continue to undertake all forms of resistance against Israel.

continue reading "Fatah drops policy of ‘armed resistance’ to Israel"