What Would the U.S. Do?

 What Would the U.S. Do?

Jerry Rapp, in a letter to the New York Times published yesterday, made a good point about Gaza:

[T]he bottom line that remains is that a sovereign, democratic nation unilaterally withdrew from a disputed territory, handing same to its adversaries without any preconditions.

The response was an essentially nonstop barrage of thousands of rockets aimed at its civilians who do not reside in disputed territory. And many of these rockets were launched before Hamas took control of Gaza.

How would any other country on the planet react to such a provocation? Think, for example, of Russia or China or the United States.

What was Gaza like after the disengagement and before Hamas took control?  Here is the JCI post from January 15, 2006:

Five months after the Gaza withdrawal and Olmert’s great expectations, there is no longer any “occupation” of Gaza.  The area has been cleansed of all 8,000 obstacles to peace, leaving the remaining inhabitants free to demonstrate their readiness to live “side by side, in peace and security” with Israel.   

And Gaza has been turned into — take your choice — “anarchy” “chaos” “mayhem.” 

Armed militias roam the streets; public figures are assassinated; “clans” engage in gunfights; kidnappings are common; public buildings are stormed by armed demonstrators; weapons smuggling has quadrupled (including rocket-propelled grenades, “tons of explosives,” and anti-aircraft missiles); rockets strike in or near Israeli cities and close to strategic targets (despite the “security zone” created in the area where settlements once stood); terrorists stream across an essentially un-policed border with Egypt; an “election” is scheduled between a terrorist organization and a corrupt ruling party that promised three years ago to dismantle it and didn’t (and maintains its own “loosely-linked” terrorist group as well).

Given a state, they created a reverse Leviathan — back to a state of nature in five months. 

The party that was given a state in Gaza and created a reverse Leviathan now resides in the rump state of Ramallah and is Israel’s “peace partner.”  The “innocent people” of Gaza elected Hamas to run their government, and now cheer it on as it continues to fulfill its campaign promises with daily rockets on Israel. I wonder what Russia, China or the U.S. would do.

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