Eight Reports on the Gaza War

1.  “Israel’s Gaza Defense,” Wall Street Journal Editorial:

Hamas refused to extend the truce past December 19, and the group has since resumed attacks, firing nearly 300 missiles, rockets and mortars.  The 250,000 Israelis in the southern part of the country live under constant threat, often in bomb shelters, and the economy has suffered.  Yet the world’s media seem to pay attention only when
Israel responds to that Hamas barrage.

Israel’s air assault has resulted in more Palestinian casualties, but that is in part because Hamas deliberately locates its security forces in residential neighborhoods.  This is intended both to deter
Israel from attacking in the first place as well as to turn world opinion against the Jewish state when it does attack.  By all accounts, however, the Israeli strikes have hit their targets precisely enough to do significant damage to Hamas forces — both to its leadership and, on Sunday, to the tunnels from
Gaza to
Egypt that Hamas uses to smuggle in weapons and build its growing army.

2.  Michael Oren and Yossi Klein Halevi, “Palestinians Need Israel to Win,” Wall Street Journal:

Much more is at stake than merely the military outcome of
Israel‘s operation.  The issue, rather, is
Israel‘s ability to restore its deterrence power and uphold the principle that its citizens cannot be targeted with impunity.

3.  Michael Oren, “A Crisis and an Opportunity,” The New Republic:

Within minutes of the first Israeli air strike, the Arabs were screaming “massacre” and the media had all but forgotten the serial assaults that provoked it.  The press once again attached the word “disproportionate” and the “continuing cycle of violence” term to describe a supremely justified and largely surgical (the targets were exclusively military, the victims overwhelmingly Hamas gunmen) operation. . . .

The government is purportedly divided over the operation’s goals, with Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in favor of toppling Hamas, while Olmert prefers to revive the tahdiyah.

4.  Shmuel Rosner, “The Short War,” The New Republic:

European leaders seemed hardly enthusiastic about the new round of violence in the
Middle East.  They were quick to respond, but they didn’t blame Hamas alone, rather asking “both sides” to halt their fire. Morally speaking, it was a disappointing, somewhat disgusting, reaction.

5.  Shadi Hamid, “What Was Hamas Thinking?,” Huffington Post:

There are a few things going on here.  Hamas is effectively the government of Gaza, but this does not mean it acts like a state might in similar circumstances.  Hamas still behaves like a traditional guerrilla or terrorist group. Such groups are interested in relative, not absolute, victory.

6.  Noah Pollak, “Daniel Levy on Gaza,” Contentions:

The occupation in Gaza was ended, and its termination only encouraged Hamas’ delusion that it is on the winning side of history.

7.  J. G. Thayer, “The Proportionality Trap,” Contentions:

As predicted, Hamas and members of the Arab world are condemning
Israel’s current attacks on
Gaza as “disproportionate,” meaning “excessive.”  And they do have a purely mathematical point — during the recent bombardments of
Israel from the
Gaza Strip, casualties have been light. At last count, one Israeli and two Palestinians (sisters, ages 13 and 5) died from in rocket attacks. So a proportionate response, one presumes, would have required
Israel to kill a single Palestinian and two of its own citizens.

8.  Rick Richman, “A Right, Indeed a Duty,” Contentions:

You cannot say it more succinctly, or put it more clearly, than Howard L. Berman (D-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, did in a statement released last night.  Here is the text, in its entirety:

“Israel has a right, indeed a duty, to defend itself in response to the hundreds of rockets and mortars fired from
Gaza over the past week.  No government in the world would sit by and allow its citizens to be subjected to this kind of indiscriminate bombardment.  The loss of innocent life is a terrible tragedy, and the blame for that tragedy lies with Hamas.”