Israel didn't do this. Israel didn't do that. Didn't remove checkpoints. Didn't stop building its protection barrier. Didn't free Palestinian murderers from prison (actually it did). All of which, had it done them, would have brought...well, nothing by way of peace to the land of blood and honey.
In the meantime, it did withdraw completely from Gaza nearly three years ago and it brought down on itself a daily storm of missiles and rockets. They fell even when Fatah was in charge in the Strip. But now that it is not and Hamas is, the torrents are more frequent and more accurate. Daily. Some days, hourly.
I cite this editorial from Ha'aretz because it comes from the most dovish of Israel's mainstream papers, so dovish that I disagree with some, even much of what I am citing. Still, it tells you something. It tells you a lot.
"Restraint is not possible." If the usually delusional Israeli left cannot tolerate military inaction with reference to the Gaza Arabs no one in Israel can. And, give a week or two weeks, they will no longer be tolerating it at all.
So just as Condi Rice has discovered her vocation as an angel of peace, the "peace camp," as it is called in Israel, no longer believes that real peace with the Palestinians is possible. The fact is that Mahmoud Abbas is at one and the same time weak and a weakling. His prime minister is an accountant, a very good one, I'm led to believe, but without muscle.
Hamas is now fighting on two fronts: against Israel and against Egypt. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Egypt were to lose this encounter with Hamas, the more fanatic of her Muslim Brotherhood enemies. But Israel will not lose to it at all, and maybe it will be able to save Egypt in the much-awaited retaliatory process. For centuries, Jewish blood was cheap. The message is: don't fuck with Israel.