I was watching the ever proficient Channel 4 news program last night. The main news story was Israel's air assault on the Gaza strip - an attack that comes at the end of a six month ceasefire (during which I was fortunate to visit the area). The presenter talked to the Israeli defence minister (I forget his name) and started by questioning his motives for the attack. He said that Hamas had been firing missiles for weeks and were a direct threat to southern Israel. Fair enough. Here's my problem..
He was then asked what Israel's future military strategy would be in the next few days. The minister did not want to reveal this for security reasons (fair enough) but also because the future military intervention depended 'on the reaction of Hamas and the Palestinians'...I'm pretty sure that this reaction is not going to be anything other than an armed retaliation.
Israel is a sovereign state entitled to defend its borders. Fact. Israel deserves to exist as a state in its own right. Fact. However, yesterday's act of brutality serves no other purpose other than to escalate the level of violence in the area. No doubt in the next few days Palestinian suicide bombers will attack Israel's major cities. Whilst I will not be able to excuse such activity I will have no problem questioning their motivation. The Israelis need to realise that you can only achieve so much diplomatically through the barrel of a gun. The genius who thinks that airstrikes will solve the problems of the Middle East needs his head looking at.
Furthermore (and this is my real 'bugbear'), when future military plans are based on the reaction of the other side you are giving tacit assumption to the fact that the other side will respond violently. This is ok during a state of war, however, the Middle Eastern countries were not 'at war' last time I heard. Israel is trying to administer a 'peace process' with F16 fighter jets. This will not work.
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