Israel, what's the point?

No one in Israel really seems to be thinking right now. Israel entered Gaza in the last few days with troops and tanks, ostensibly with the intention of freeing a captive soldier being held by Hamas militants. No one in the press has stopped to ask how sending in tanks, blowing up bridges and knocking out Gaza’s power supply will stop a Palestinian militant from putting a bullet through an Israeli soldier’s head. Unless Israel plans to miraculously put one of its tanks between the soldier and his would be executioner. Difficult, since no one in Israel knows exactly where the soldier is being detained.

So, the question is, what is Israel really trying to accomplish by its invasion of Gaza? An Israeli acquaintance of mine says it has to do with the Israeli mentality, which requires that Israel demonstrate that it is strong at all times, not vulnerable or weak. Translation: Israel is trying to show that it can shed blood far and wide as good as anyone. The larger goal of peace is secondary to the need to deomonstrate that Israel can flex its muscle at any time.

I am Jewish, and I had the opportunity to live and work for many years in Tel Aviv. Israelis are strong, intelligent people, and they are also profoundly warm and human. What I do not very well understand, in spite of the many years I spent in Israel, is the weakness the Israeli government has shown through its inability to say No More. The pressure the government feels to act militarily must come from the Israeli people. But I am not sure whether this pressure is real or perceived. Ariel Sharon dedicated his office to withdrawing from Gaza, just as new Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has promised to withdraw from most of the West Bank. In doing so, both leaders have moved squarely against the more right wing elements of Israeli society, those elements that prefer to shoot, always. Yet, is it now yielding to pressure from these same elements that drives the senseless, pointless and stunningly large-scale attack on Gaza and rounding up of Palestinian government ministers?

Many Palestinians have been and are murderous. The goal of many Palestinians is not to live in harmony with Israel, rather to erase the country from the map. However, unless Israel plans on wiping out all Palestinians, it will have to deal with some of them. And, it will have to begin to differentiate between those Palestinians that it can hope to deal with and those that it cannot. The Israeli soldier was kidnapped by a militant wing of Hamas that takes orders from Damascus. Yet Israel has reacted by arresting elected Palestinian officials and holding Abu Mazen accountable. Israel’s demands that Abu Mazen disarm Hamas are not currently realistic: Abu Mazen has no such power and Israel knows that. He has even less opportunity to act if his government is held in Israeli custody.

So the question stands open: Is Israel’s leadership interested in peace? The country’s recent reaction seems out of proportion to recent Palestinian aggression (particularly if you see that there is Always aggression).

The price paid will the derailing of any recent progress and the further weakening of Abbas, Israel’s best hope. The reward? Nothing.