Out of Gaza

I absolutely agree that Israel needs its deterrence, to survive in the Middle East. This strenght went lost in the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and in the 2009 Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. Both the conflicts proved incapable of undermining the small but dangerous geopolitical power of the extremists. Hezbollah and Hamas retained and perhaps strengthened their strongholds. From the North and from the South they may keep Israel in check and, I believe, they may keep exploiting their people, Arabic solidarity, international aid, and they can keep poisoning democratic evolution in Lebanon and Egypt.
This three days of war on Gaza terror infrastructures may have lead to a significant restoration of Israel's deterrence.
Now I hope that a sense of restraint may prevail, to save lives, first of all.
And I would also add that Israel and Gaza must separate, if they don't really want to end up with destroying each other.
Stop the humanitarian blackmail.
Stop the confusion, and the corruption!
Staging of the block during the day, and practising mutual sustain at night, it may serve to help Netanyahu and Barak to win election... It may help keeping Hamas in power... It may also give a little but important political help to Ahmadinejad and to the Iranian mullahcracy... It may justify the presence of international bureaucracy... But what about the ordinary people? What about truth? And what about peace?

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For those who want to deepen an interesting excerpt:



Israel killed its subcontractor in Gaza 
The political outcome of the operation will become clear on January 22, but the strategic ramifications are more complex: Israel will have to find a new subcontractor to replace Ahmed Jabari as its border guard in the south.
By Aluf Benn | Nov.14, 2012 | 10:44 PM | 21

Source:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-killed-its-subcontractor-in-gaza.premium-1.477886
Accessed 16 November 2012
       
Ahmed Jabari was a subcontractor, in charge of maintaining Israel's security in Gaza. This title will no doubt sound absurd to anyone who in the past several hours has heard Jabari described as "an arch-terrorist," "the terror chief of staff" or "our Bin Laden."

But that was the reality for the past five and a half years. Israel demanded of Hamas that it observe the truce in the south and enforce it on the multiplicity of armed organizations in the Gaza Strip. The man responsible for carrying out this policy was Ahmed Jabari.

In return for enforcing the quiet, which was never perfect, Israel funded the Hamas regime through the flow of shekels in armored trucks to banks in Gaza, and continued to supply infrastructure and medical services to the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. Jabari was also Israel's partner in the negotiations for the release of Gilad Shalit; it was he who ensured the captive soldier's welfare and safety, and it was he who saw to Shalit's return home last fall.

...



The assassination of Jabari will go down in history as another showy military action initiated by an outgoing government on the eve of an election.

...

When the cannons roar, we see only Netanyahu and Barak on the screen, and all the other politicians have to applaud them.

The political outcome of the operation will become clear on January 22. The strategic ramifications are more complex: Israel will have to find a new subcontractor to replace Ahmed Jabari as its border guard in the south, and it will also have to ensure that its action in Gaza does not cause the collapse of its peace treaty with Egypt under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Hamas movement's patron.

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