An excerpt from,
"Gaza: Why a ‘Cease-Fire’ is Not enough" by Juan Cole, July 27, 2014:
When ordinary countries fight wars they have war aims. In World War
II, the US wanted to defeat Germany militarily, but then to help it
return to democracy and to economic health. By 1947 the US would
actually be spending a lot of money on Germany’s well-being via the
Marshall Plan.
Israel has no strategic war aims in Gaza because it has no large
scale, long term strategy concerning the Strip. Its war is all about
tactics and minutiae. How many tunnels and rockets can it destroy? How
much damage can it inflict on the Hamas leadership? But tunnels and
rockets can be rebuilt and the dead leaders’ cousins will take over
after them.
It is frankly stupid to think the Israelis can, in Mitt Romney’s
words, kick the can down the road forever on making peace with the
Palestinians. It hasn’t tried because Israel wants Palestinian land and
resources and won’t give them up.
The United Nations has raised the specter
that because of the Israeli blockade and the consequent inability of
Palestinians in Gaza to build their infrastructure, it may well not be
habitable by 2020. Its only native source of water, an aquifer, is 90%
polluted. If Gaza fails, where will its by-then 2 million people go?
Will Israel just let them thirst to death? Renal failure typically sets
in in about 3 days if people don’t have water. That is genocide.
Israel gives no evidence of doing any planning to avert that outcome in a territory for which it is responsible in international law.
The one strategy Israel has is to use collective punishment and a
blockade on children and other non-combatants in an attempt to weaken
Hamas. But even if they could succeed (so far they haven’t), the
Israelis don’t seem to realize that the hellhole that is Gaza will
always throw up radical groups intent on breaking the 1.7 million
Palestinians there out of their large open-air jail, in which Israel is
keeping them.
That is, Israel’s only real strategy is causing war, not ending war.
Analysing Israel's Gaza offensive rationale. Source: Al Jazeera. Date Published: July 27, 2014. Description:
As international pressure for a lasting truce continues, Israel and
Hamas still cannot agree on the terms of a ceasefire. Trying to
remember the reasons for the start of the Israeli offensive on Gaza is
difficult. But as Rosiland Jordan explains, some of the reasons behind
the continuation of Israel's operation may be more rhetoric than fact.
