Israel's pre-emptive strikes on Gaza

ARTICLE: "Obama's Mideast Plans Face New Complications," by Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal, 29 December 2008.

Granted, Israel can always cite cause, but you have to wonder if Tel Aviv isn't simply getting its licks in while it can in order to set the table to its liking vis-a-vis the new administration.

Israel is as calculating as any Arab regime in the region on this score.

To me, a rather solid choice. Hamas deserves its beatdown, so why not get it over early?

Comments

[stuart abrams]

I'd be interested in hearing TPMB's take on Walter Russell Mead's recent essay on the Israel/Palestine conflict. http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20090101faessay88105/walter-russell-mead/change-they-can-believe-in.html?mode=printI found it intriguing, but I'm not sure about it. While I admire Mead enormously, I have a feeling that there is less here than meets the eye.

[Tom Barnett]

I scanned it. Seemed pretty stock to me.

[Don]

Israel's society and economy is a part of the core in a region otherwise part of the gap. Is it possible that part of the Arab/Muslim refusal to integrate into the core is that they see their antithesis as "Israel" - the Muslim world needs to see it is not how much land you have (and whether it is called Palestine or Israel), it is what you do with the land you have.