Friday, January 23, 2009

Tunnel vision

Egypt Halting Arms Flow? Forget It! -General Giora Eiland

Its most important success is that the [IDF] operation will produce quiet for a long time in the south. Israel's deterrence has been reasserted. The IDF was successful, the public has been reassured, the home front functioned well.

The issue of arms smuggling into Gaza is much more problematic. The only truly effective way to prevent the smuggling would be for the Egyptians to build a buffer zone five kilometers from the border, fence it off, and control the only road through the sand. But they won't do that.

Israel should be prepared to ease certain border restrictions if the Red Cross is allowed to visit [captured IDF soldier Gilad] Shalit - and should not ease that access if the Red Cross is not allowed to visit.
(Jerusalem Post)


Hamas Takes Control of All Gaza Tunnels -Yaakov Katz

Hamas has seized control of all the smuggling tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza and has been moving in additional arms since the Gaza operation ended.

The tunnels in Rafah are usually run by local Palestinian clans. Hamas' decision to take control enables it to decide what is smuggled in and to give priority to weapons and explosives.
(Jerusalem Post)


War Crimes Accusation Against Israel -Alan Dershowitz

If Russia did not commit war crimes when its soldiers massacred tens of thousands of Chechnyans (not even in a defensive war), then on what basis could Israel be accused of accidentally killing a far fewer number of human shields in an effort to protect its civilians?

If the laws of war and international human rights are to endure, they must be applied to nations in order of the seriousness of the violations, not in order of the political unpopularity of the nations.
(Huffington Post)

1 comment:

LHwrites said...

These steps are necessary, and very unlikely, but possible, in the future, with international coaxing. Clearly Egypt would like to see hamas and Iran lose some strength. As for the war crimes, absolutely correct. It is not right, and forget about why Russia was not charged, look at the US and how many Iraqi civilians died!! By the way, you can find how many in Gaza died, and Chechnya, but try to find an accurate assessment of how many Iraqis died during our invasion, or even how many Americans died because of Katrina! The last 8 years, besides the rights of humans around the world, and the rights of our own citizens, being flushed down the toilet, we seemed to have adopted some of the more disturbing tricks of Russia and China; suppressing facts and the free press. I look forward to some accurate counts coming out during the next couple of years so we can really assess what we have wrought with our actions, and inaction's.