From the London Review of Books:
But the price of war is higher for Israel than it was during Cast Lead, and its room for manoeuvre more limited, because the Jewish state’s only real ally, the American government, has to maintain good relations with Egypt and other democratically elected [...]]]>
From the London Review of Books:
]]>But the price of war is higher for Israel than it was during Cast Lead, and its room for manoeuvre more limited, because the Jewish state’s only real ally, the American government, has to maintain good relations with Egypt and other democratically elected Islamist governments. During the eight days of Pillar of Defence, Israel put on an impressive and deadly fireworks show, as it always does, lighting up the skies of Gaza and putting out menacing tweets straight from The Sopranos. But the killing of entire families and the destruction of government buildings and police stations, far from encouraging Palestinians to submit, will only fortify their resistance, something Israel might have learned by consulting the pages of recent Jewish history. The Palestinians understand that they are no longer facing Israel on their own: Israel, not Hamas, is the region’s pariah. The Arab world is changing, but Israel is not. Instead, it has retreated further behind Jabotinsky’s ‘iron wall’, deepening its hold on the Occupied Territories, thumbing its nose at a region that is at last acquiring a taste of its own power, exploding in spasms of high-tech violence that fail to conceal its lack of a political strategy to end the conflict. Iron Dome may shield Israel from Qassam rockets, but it won’t shield it from the future.
For a more level-headed perspective of the trip, check out Adam Shatz’s post at the blog of the [...]]]>
For a more level-headed perspective of the trip, check out Adam Shatz’s post at the blog of the London Review of Books. Read the whole thing, but here’s his section on the dire predictions and maneuvers to keep Ahmadinejad out of Iran (a sort of multi-lateral Domino Theory for our times):
]]>The prospect of a love-in between Ahmadinejad and tens of thousands of Hizbullah supporters on Israel’s border was not a welcome one in Western capitals. With its usual respect for Lebanese sovereignty, the US urged the Lebanese government to deny him entry, hinting that it might be forced to cut aid to the Lebanese army. Israel wasn’t pleased, either, though some right-wing Israeli politicians noted that the Iranian president would be an easy hit for the IDF in southern Lebanon. ‘To assassinate Ahmadinejad today is like assassinating Hitler in 1939,’ said Aryeh Eldad, a MP in the National Union party. ‘He must not return home alive.’
Iran’s extremist Sunni opponents in al-Qaida made similar threats, promising that Lebanon would ‘tremble’ if Ahmadinejad set foot there. False alarms, as it turned out: the visit passed without incident. Ahmadinejad didn’t even throw a stone at Israel from the border, confining himself to his typical slogans about the imminent disappearance of the Zionist enemy. He doesn’t seem to have faced any tough questions about the state of Iranian politics, either, partly thanks to the Lebanese government, which successfully pressed the organisers of the Beirut International Film Festival to cancel a planned screening of Green Days, a documentary about protest and repression during the 2009 electoral crisis.