Monday, 29 December 2008


December 29, 2008

Where will it end?

By Ted Belman

What is clear so far is that this war has been planned over a long period of time together with the U.S. It is the fault of the US that Hamas gained ascendancy through the democracy initiative. It is the fault of the US that Israel was removed from the Rafah Crossing. Hamas now represents a thorn in the side of the US peace process.

What is also clear is that this war was better planned than the Lebanon War II. It began with better intelligence and with effective deceit.

What is not clear is, where will it end. What’s the point.

Obviously the US and Israel have agreed on the end. This concerns me. It suggests that the end is to enable Fatah to take back Gaza. It may well be the reason the US has been training PA forces in Jordan. The object of the exercise is to enable the peace process to get on track.

Thus Israel’s actions are constrained by the tactical and strategic agreements already in place.

If you are against retreating from Judea and Samaria, you are thus against the peace process. To this extent, this is not good news.

Michael Oren in his article in WSJ Israel’s Gaza Defense makes the point.

    It may also be the last chance to reassure Israelis of the viability of a two-state solution. Given the unfortunate historical resonance, Israel should refrain from calling its current operation, “Peace for Southern Israel.” But without Hamas’s defeat, there can be no serious progress toward a treaty that both satisfies Palestinian aspirations and allays Israel’s fears. At stake in Gaza is nothing less than the future of the peace process.
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ON WAR

Prof. Paul Eidelberg

Let us recall certain lessons on war by one of the greatest military scientists, General Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831).

Clausewitz’s magnum opus, On War, is studied in military schools to this day. He defines war as “an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will. Violence is the means; submission of the enemy to our will the ultimate object.” For as long as the enemy remains armed, he will wait for a more favorable moment for action.

The ultimate object of war is political. To attain this object fully, the enemy must be disarmed. Disarming the enemy “becomes therefore the immediate object of hostilities. It takes the place of the final object and puts it aside as something we can eliminate from our calculations.” 
(Read more…)

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GAZA UPDATE

By YAAKOV KATZ AND JPOST.COM STAFF

An IAF aircraft on Monday night struck the home of Maher Zakut, the commander of Hamas’s rocket-firing forces, the army said. In was unclear whether Zakut was in the house at the time. Palestinian sources said that seven people were killed in the strike. According to reports, several more targets were struck in the Strip.

Several secondary explosions were caused by the strike because of a large weapons warehouse alongside the senior operative’s house.

The air force also struck a truck carrying Grad-type missiles, setting off a series of secondary explosions, the IDF said. The army believes that Hamas was transferring the missiles to a hideout out of fear that their location had been compromised. The trasfer was also supposedly intended to bring them closer to areas from which they could be launched at Israel.
(Read more…)

Posted by Ted Belman @ 12:46 pm ET | Plink | Trackback | No Comments » | 14 views

Bombing, without retaking Gaza, makes little difference

The Gaza Picture Show

By Sultan Knish

Once again Israeli planes are bombing terrorist targets and IDF troops will make a foray into terrorist held territory– only to then be swiftly ordered home again.

This type of operation has become a regular feature of the Post-Oslo Israeli military,pointless engagements that lightly wound terrorists, and then leave them to nurse their wounds, while giving the politicians who ordered them a brief boost in their poll ratings.

[Debbie Schlussel agrees and advises Don't Get Too Excited About the Phony Baloney, Temporary Israeli "War" vs. HAMAS]

This particular operation neatly precedes both the Israeli election, and Obama taking office, which means that it is a very expensive ad campaign for Kadima and Labor, combined with a futile attempt to shake a threatening fist at Hamas, before terrorism’s good time girl Barack is ensconced in the White House.
(Read more…)

Posted by Ted Belman @ 11:57 am ET | Plink | Trackback | 2 Comments » | 38 views

‘the Land of Israel for the Nation of Israel in accordance with the Torah of Israel.’

Ketzaleh: “We’ll Increase Our Knesset Strength”

by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) Leaders of the renewed National Union party held a press conference today, and expressed optimism that they would receive at least 10 Knesset seats.

The press conference, held in the Knesset, featured the leaders of the various parties comprising the list: Party Chairman Yaakov Ketzaleh Katz of Beit El, MK Uri Ariel of Tekumah in second place, MK Aryeh Eldad of HaTikvah, Dr. Michael Ben-Ari of the Jewish Front-Our Land of Israel Party (known as the Marzel-Wolpe merger), and, in fifth place, Uri Bank of Moledet.

Ketzaleh
MC’ing the event was educator and TV journalist Avi Rath. He first introduced Ketzaleh, who explained with his customary enthusiasm the goals of the newly-unified party: “We will raise the banner of the Land of Israel, which has been sullied in recent years. We can already feel the excitement in the air at the fact that our united party has arisen. We are confident that, together with our youth - the most wonderful in the country – we will first gather hundreds, then thousands, and then tens of thousands to support our cause.” [..]
(Read more…)

Posted by Ted Belman @ 9:30 am ET | Plink | Trackback | 4 Comments » | 34 views

Listen to WEBY 1330AM Radio Panel on IDF Gaza ‘Operation Cast Lead,’ today

By Jerry Gordon, The Iconoclast

New English Review contributing Editor Jerry Gordon will be joining a radio interview panel to discuss the current IDF ‘Operation Cast Lead’ in Gaza. The panel discussion will be broadcast at 4:00PM CST (5:00PM EST) on Milton, Florida radio station WEBY-1330AM, a 25,000 Watt station that covers four Gulf Coast states with a wide listener audience in the region. You may listen to this special WEBY “Your Turn” program hosted by Kenneth Lamb at the station’s website ‘listen live’ streaming, here.

Among the topics to be discussed are:

    · Military and Political objectives of IDF Gaza ‘Operation Cast Lead’

    · implications for the upcoming Knesset General elections on February 10, 2009;

    · impact on Middle East peace deliberations in light of the incoming Obama Administration in Washington;

    · UN Security Council and EU statements vis a vis cessation of IDF operations in Gaza against Hamas;

    · Continuing Palestinian Islamic Jihad and resistance Committee rocket attacks against Israeli population centers in the south of the Country and Western Negev;

    · Dynamics of conflict between Hamas in Gaza versus the PLO-Fatah in the West Bank; and,

    · Surprising division in the Arab world with support for Hamas, proxy of Iran and Syria.

Other invited panelists in this WEBY “Your Turn” radio forum include:

    · Dan Diker, foreign affairs analyst, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs;

    · Jonathan Schanzer, Jewish Policy Center, Washington, DC and author of “Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle For Palestine;”

    · M.K. Arieh Eldad, Ha Tikvah party opposition leader;

    · Ted Belman, Toronto, editor, Israpundit blog.

Posted by Jerry Gordon @ 7:21 am ET | Plink | Trackback | No Comments » | 27 views

Religion trumps economics

By Ted Belman

In Yaalon’s “Longer-But-Shorter” Road to Peace* Prof Eidelberg delves deeply into the Yaalon/Netanyahu prescription for success and dismisses it by arguing,

    Perhaps unknown to its advocates, the economic approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is based on a Marxist mode of thought: the primacy of economics over religion. For Marx, human conflict is not the result of the vices of human nature, such as the lust for power or glory. No, conflict results from economic scarcity. Eliminate scarcity or poverty and you eliminate the basic cause of conflict.

    A variation of this doctrine appears in Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, the classic text of capitalism. Capitalism, in opposition to religion, purveys the doctrine that human misery and conflict can be overcome by economic laissez-faire. Smith said war could be replaced by economic competition. Hence, universal avarice, fostered by a free market economy, can trump religion. Indeed, homo economicus, unlike homo religiosis, is amenable to compromise.

(Read more…)

Posted by Ted Belman @ 5:24 am ET | Plink | Trackback | 1 Comment » | 26 views

Yaalon’s “Longer-But-Shorter” Road to Peace*

Prof. Paul Eidelberg

Binyamin Netanyahu’s plan to elevate the economic well-being of the Palestinians to facilitate the “peace process” coincides with a policy paper written by former Chief of General Staff Moshe Yaalon, now with the Likud Party. The paper is entitled “Israel and the Palestinians: A New Strategy.”

Yaalon’s paper begins by analyzing the reasons why the Oslo accords failed to bring peace. “Fifteen years ago,” he says, “the signing of the Oslo accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) raised hopes that Israel had boarded the ‘peace train.’ Over the years, however, it became clear that the train was not headed for the promised destination.” Nevertheless, Israel’s leadership has foolishly remained on the same train.
(Read more…)

Posted by Britannia Radio at 18:09