Sunday, June 29, 2014

Bright idea of the day; Lieberman calls for reoccupation of Gaza

Avigdor Lieberman is probably the only Foreign Minister in the world who makes Canada's master of bullshit 'n bluster, John Baird, look calm and reasonable... almost diplomatic!

On a day when Jordan and Saudi Arabia are moving tanks to their borders in anticipation of infiltration attempts by ISIS, when Russian, US, and Iranian "advisers" are all on the ground in Iraq, Lieberman calls for the reoccupation of Gaza. Perhaps his thinking, if that is not too strong a word, is that since practically the entire neighbourhood is aflame anyway, who's going to notice if he sends in the IDF to burn Gaza to the ground?

Fortunately, it is a virtual certainty that cooler heads will prevail. While there is a certain jingoistic appeal to stopping those "Hamas rockets" once and for all, any serious student of the subject well knows that even a week of reoccupying Gaza will claim more Israeli lives than the last five years of Gaza rockets. And that is but the first week.

Nor is there any reasonable prospect that such a venture will actually stop the rocketeers.

What would definitely be accomplished is that Israel's already severely tarnished image in the community of nations would take another hit. Palestinians would be further radicalized, which may not be a great strategy with ISIS already knocking on Jordan's door, and the goal of peace, or at least a manageable non-peace, would recede even further into the distance than it already is.

Hopefully the senior IDF types who are paid to put some thought into these matters will prevail on the political leadership to tone down the rhetoric and keep their powder dry. This is not the time to pour more gasoline on the flames that threaten to consume the entire neighbourhood.

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