We’ve been here before, said Yitzhak Ben Yisrael in Yedioth Ahronoth. When we used to order airstrikes on Gaza to take out the missiles that threatened Israeli cities, we called them “retaliation operations.” This week’s Pillar of Cloud operation was just “the same lady in a different wig.” As before, the objectives were twofold: first, “dent the terror infrastructure” that Hamas has built up, and second, send a signal to the whole Arab world “that Israel is still going strong and that the dream of erasing its existence is impractical.” Those goals have been met, at least for now.
And what about the Palestinians’ existence? asked Ha’aretz in an editorial. Gaza City lies in ruins, and if Interior Minister Eli Yishai had his way, the destruction would be far worse. He urged the Israel Defense Forces to eradicate the entire enclave’s infrastructure, which would have been “inhuman and a war crime” and would not, in any case, have done Israel any good. Israel has already “turned the lives of Gaza’s 1.5 million people into hell,” a strategy that only bolsters their support for Hamas and their “hatred for Israel.”
Degrading the militants’ capabilities is only a temporary fix anyway, said Udi Hirsh in Ma’ariv. In the longer term, the best we can hope for is an uneasy status quo with Gaza’s Islamist militant leaders. “A brave Israeli leader should stand up and tell the citizens the truth”: Hamas may be “a murderous organization,” but “we will have to learn to live with it.” That’s easier now that we have the Iron Dome missile defense system, which shoots down most Palestinian rockets. And it’s better than the alternative, which would be invasion, said The Jerusalem Post. “Few Israelis want to see their sons and daughters patrolling the streets of Gaza.” One day Hamas will lose popularity, as Palestinians bear the costs of a terrorist organization that “purposely embeds its gunmen” among civilians. For now, though, we can only hope for “a cease-fire that postpones as long as possible the inevitable next round of violence.”
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Do we really want to “have a war every four years or so”? said Gershon Baskin, alsoin The Jerusalem Post. I don’t. We need regime change in Gaza, and we won’t get it by blasting Hamas into oblivion. The Palestinians will have to change their government themselves, and we can encourage them to do so in one way, without bombs: “make peace with the Palestinian people through their legal representative—the PLO and its chairman, Mahmoud Abbas.” If Israel can help Abbas forge a Palestinian state encompassing Gaza and the West Bank, Hamas will lose all claim to authority. Israel is holding elections in two months. “My vote will go to those leaders who present me a future of promise, a future of peace and understanding with our neighbors, and not those who promise me a better war.”
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Tunisia: The only bloom of the Arab Spring
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Australia: It takes two to reconcile
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Israel: Ariel Sharon’s ambiguous legacy
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South Africa: Trying to live up to Mandela
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China: Staking a claim to the air and the sea
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China: Is our aid to the Philippines too meager?
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Philippines: A calamitous response to calamity
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