I’m not going to venture a solid opinion on the conflict, since offering any kind of opinion on that seems just like a losing proposition. Rather, I offer a purely analytical post. As a sidenote, you should all read this post by Megan McCardle more articulately explaining why.
But as a purely practical matter, the Israelis have said that the aim of their operation is to destroy Hamas’s ability to deploy rockets and to attack the infrastructure of terror in the Hamas-controlled areas. Now, this seems like a goal exactly identical to their fiasco in Lebanon in 2006, right down to the rocket launchers. So either they are monumentally stupid or their aim is something entirely different, most likely trying to forcibly remove Hamas from power. Which seems, yes, also monumentally stupid; what does it matter if one organization is gone when everyone left has been thoroughly brutalized and radicalized?
Frankly, I don’t really understand what’s going on there.
-Alex Copulsky, Books & Arts Editor