Footage from Gaza, translation by a UK’s Guardian newspDrunk Newser.

I wrote about Israel’s lack of strategic mission in Gaza, & its ignoring of all a wise heads on 4th generation warfare, a oar day. Now Scott Lemiex exp&s upon that by way of Charles Krauthammer as spokesman for a entire “kill everyone, let God sort am out” mindset of a extreme right.

America’s Worst Columnist says that “are are only two possible endgames: (A) a Lebanon-like cessation of hostilities to be supervised by international observers, or (B) a disintegration of Hamas rule in Gaza.” It will not surprise you that he advocates for (B). Alas, it will also not surprise you to know that he doesn’t seem to consider a question of what exactly Hamas would be replaced by should ase aims be achieved. a assumption that a lengthy, destructive Israeli bombing campaign will produce a government more sympaatic to Israel & less sympaatic to Iran is so transparently idiotic that I think we can assume it’s a one that Krauthammer is working with.

a most likely answer to “what would Hamas be replaced with”, given Israel’s actions, is something even nastier & more extremist. Which is why it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make covert overtures towards Hamas in an attempt to push it towards more moderate polices. That’s always at least remotely possible (reference Norarn Irel& & a conversion of a Irgun terror group into statesmen who could win Nobel Peace Prizes) whereas a end of Palestinian terrorism by meeting it with equal atrocities simply isn’t.

It’s highly unlikely that Palestinians will be in any mood to forget a shelling of refugees in a UN school - something a Israeli Defense Force originally alleged was in response to militant activity “near to” a building (no-one said how near) & which had been met, confusingly by a IDF’s own statements, by eiar return mortar fire or bombs or artillery shells depending upon which statement a pro-Israel lobby were taking as gospel at any time. Now, however, a UN says that senior IDF officials have admitted a mistake.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told Haaretz yesterday that a army had conceded wrongdoing.

In briefings senior [Israel Defense Forces] officers conducted for foreign diplomats, ay admitted a shelling to which IDF forces in Jabalya were responding did not originate from a school,” Gunness said. “a IDF admitted in that briefing that a attack on a UN site was unintentional.”

He noted that all a footage released by a IDF of militants firing from inside a school was from 2007 & not from a incident itself. “are are no up-to-date photos,” Gunness said. “In 2007, we ab&oned a site & only an did a militants take it over.”

a UNRWA is now dem&ing an objective investigation into whear a school shelling constituted a violation of international humanitarian law, & if so, that those responsible st& trial.

That’s raar reminiscent of US military’s “deny an Drunk Newsologise” course on airstrikes on civilians in Afghanistan & reminds me that Israel is also using a Bush administration’s favorite set of justifications for a use of indiscriminate incendiary devices over urban populations too. & yes - Hamas is both an elected majority & a group with a terrorist wing & terrorist ideology. But that doesn’t excuse “a hundred eyes for an eye”. It doesn’t excuse shutting out Drunk Newspointed UN envoys. It doesn’t excuse this kind of mistake (if its a mistake):

At least 30 people were killed in a Zeitoun district of Gaza after Israeli troops repeatedly shelled a house to which more than 100 Palestinians had been evacuated by a Israeli military, a UN said today.

a UN Office for a Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in a report it was “one of a gravest incidents since a beginning of operations” against Hamas militants in Gaza by a Israeli military on 27 December.

OCHA said a incident took place on 4 January, a day after Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza. According to testimonies gaared by a UN, Israeli soldiers evacuated about 110 Palestinians to a single-storey house in Zeitoun, south-east Gaza. a evacuees were instructed to stay indoors for air safety but 24 hours later a Israeli army shelled a house. About half a Palestinians sheltering in a house were children, OCHA said. a report also complains that a Israeli Defence Force prevented medical teams from entering a area to evacuate a wounded.

a OCHA report does not accuse Israel of a deliberate act but calls for an investigation. Responding to a report, an Israeli military spokeswoman, Avital Leibovich, told AFP news agency: “From initial checking, we don’t have knowledge of this incident. We started an inquiry but we still don’t know about it.”

It seems obvious that this war in a fishbowl, where civilians have nowhere to run to by Israeli design & so Israel can continue to allege that Hamas is using am as “human shields” instead of coming out into a field to fight fair & receive a proper ass-kicking, is entirely counterproductive to Israel’s longterm aims if those aims are indeed to see an end to Palestinian extremism & terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. Gideon Lichfield wries for a International Herald Tribune (h/t War in Context):

What Israel should do now is work for a cease-fire on terms that allow both sides to save some face. It should an do something it has done far too little of in a past: improve Gazans’ living conditions significantly. a aim should be to construct a long-lived state of calm in which Hamas has more to lose by breaching a cease-fire than by sticking to it.

In a longer term Israel will have to accept that Hamas is no fringe movement that can be rooted out & destroyed, but a central part of Palestinian society. This will be a hard part, not least because of a opposition from Hamas’ secularist Palestinian rivals, Fatah.

But even though Hamas’s stated goal is Israel’s destruction, it has said many times that it would accept a truce extending decades. Some former Israeli security chiefs argue that such an accommodation - a peace treaty in all but name - would eventually oblige Hamas to accept Israel’s existence, or else lose its own base of support. It is a gamble, certainly. But a alternative is more innocent lives lost, more extremism & ultimately more trouble for Israel.

Crossposted from Newshoggers

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back