Reflections on Current Hamas/Israel Hostilities

Daniel Pipes ^ | Daniel Pipes

[Amerisraelhere]

Two observations about the hostilities that began on Nov. 10:

An Israeli soldier works on the IDF's Facebook page. (1) The old Arab-Israeli wars were military clashes, the recent ones are political clashes. The wars of 1948-49, 1967, and 1973 were life-and-death struggles for the Jewish state. But the wars of 2006, 2008-09, and now 2012 are media events in which Israeli victory on the military battlefield is foreordained and the struggle is to win public opinion. Opeds have replaced bullets, social media have replaced tanks. Will Israel prevail in arguing that its enemy initiated offensive action? Or will those enemies, Hamas or Hezbollah, convince observers that Israel is an illegitimate regime whose recourse to force is criminal? The war must be fought primarily as a media event.

(2) If Hamas knows it cannot defeat the Israel Defense Forces and will get a bloody nose for its efforts, it obviously has motives other than victory in mind. What might those be? Several come to mind:

Test the waters in the aftermath of Barack Obama's reelection. Rouse public opinion against Israel and make it pay a price internationally. Refute accusations by Palestinian Islamic Jihad that it has abandoned "resistance." Remind the Palestinian Authority, as it seeks statehood at the United Nations, who controls Gaza. Rile up Israeli Arabs. Preempt Egyptian plans to destroy Gaza tunnels, as Cairo cannot be seen helping Israel in a time of crisis.

[PGalt]

Hostilities?

The universalism of Islam, in its all-embracing creed, is imposed on the believers as a continuous process of warfare, psychological and political, if not strictly military. . . . The Jihad, accordingly, may be stated as a doctrine of a permanent state of war, not continuous fighting.”2 — Majid Khadduri

The Quranic Concept of War

http://www.carlisle.army.mil/USAWC/parameters/Articles/06winter/win-ess.pdf

Fislam

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Amerisraelhere.

Op-eds have replaced bullets, social media have replaced tanks. Will Israel prevail in arguing that its enemy initiated offensive action? Or will those enemies, Hamas or Hezbollah, convince observers that Israel is an illegitimate regime whose recourse to force is criminal? The war must be fought primarily as a media event.

Israel needs to round up all Arabs in the "West Bank" and in Gaza, who don't want to live in Israel, and expel them into the Sinai, then let Egypt know that continued attacks on Israel from the Sinai will result in A) Israel's retaking of the Sinai, since Egypt will have clearly repudiated the treaty, and B) the expulsion of everyone in the Sinai into Egypt.

[Amerisraelhere]

Never should have left the Sinai.

Part of that wrong lies with jihad jimmy carter’s arm twisting.

But as has been the case many times since then,Israelis were hard pressed to show the world that they were “serious” about wanting true peace.

But that doesn’t make any difference to the UN, EU, or the rest of the world.

They want to bow in appeasement to Islam, and that means taking a hard line against Israel.

And some like Catherine Ashton of the EU and Merkel of Germany are just plain clueless.

[FreeAtlanta]

Israel must hold on for 4 more years.