Israel to Re-enter Gaza? China, Europe & more

According to a top Israeli commander, Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, the Jewish state is seriously considering re-entering Gaza. If anyone is surprised at this, you absolutely shouldn't be. This one was coming long ago.

Given the Palestinians' clear intentions of destroying Israel, as opposed to simply wanting a state of their own, the Gaza pullout was doomed from the start. As many predicted (including myself), the withdrawal has led not to peace, but only to more terror. Without Israel's presence, Palestinians have regularly fired Qassam rockets from Gaza into nearby Jewish residential areas.

The leftwing disengagement plan has clearly backfired, and Israel needs to re-strengthen itself and regain what it gave up. It also demonstrates the foolish ineptness of Olmert's new plan to withdraw from the West Bank, and we all must strongly support efforts to oppose it.

In other news:

It certainly may seem that way, but Islamic terrorists aren't the only threat to America. An expanstionist Communist China must be carefully watched.

Thought the Pulitzer Prize was prestigious? Lately, it hasn't been worth the paper it's printed on. Douglas MacKinnon of the Washington Times reports.

The future of Western Europe? At its present trajectory, economic stagnation.

Blog of the Day: The Brussels Journal

Comments

[Verdant]

Hi Surfer,

Well, I don't know exactly where to begin.

Israel has achieved much by virtue of its decision to leave Gaza, not including the fact that such occupation was intermittent and very expensive. Politically, the EU is much more neutral than it has ever been as a direct result of Israel's less agressive posture. Egypt, with its Muslim Brotherhood problems is also more neutral. Jordan is more pro-Israel than ever before. Money has been pledged by the Russians (who are also urging the Hamas government to recognize Israel) and by Iran, but none has been delivered. Hamas is now in the "open" and is therefore more vulnerable. It also will diminish in popularity as it attempts to limit secular pursuits and fails to bring Fatah into it's ambit. My opinion is that Israel will not re-occupy Gaza unless it is prepared to abandon its goal of leaving most of the West Bank (which will produce even more pressure on the Hamas government to negotiate and win Israel even more international support) and alternatively declare war on Hamas. I do not think this is likely - Israel did not yet even retaliate for the recent Tel Aviv bombing.

Yes, any communist government must be watched. But a country with a 10% growth rate gives up much communist idealogy to maintain such growth. Don't be surprised if China seems more like the U.S. than France in 10 years.

[Mini Me]

Surfer or anyone,

Do you think if Hamas had lost the election and Fatah remained in control, the Gaza pullout may have resulted in peace? Or was this pullout doomed to fail from the beginning?

[Solid Surfer]

I still think the pullout was doomed from the beginning. Fatah is ostensibly more "moderate" than Hamas, but the only real difference is that Hamas is open about its intentions to destroy Israel, whereas Fatah hides it with doublespeak. Fatah may talk peace in English to international observers, but they fully support terror according to what they say to their own people in Arabic. Furthermore, their party constitution still calls for the destruction of Israel, and they could have had their own state fifty times over but always rejected it for terror and war.

This is why, with relation to Verdant's comment, the Gaza withdrawal still hurts Israel. The pullout certainly did garner Israel more international support, but it also undeniably motivated Palestinian terrorists (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc.), and when push comes to shove, the international community will drop its support (as it has always done to Israel during the country's entire existence), while Israel will still have to face the terrorists.

I stongly feel that the way Israel can win is through internal strength, and not because of international support.

[Kuai]

In regards to the China issue any rapidly growing power needs to be dealt with carefully. However the fear expressed in the article on frontpagemag.com, I think is a bit unfounded. We need to be wary or our expanding neighbor but we also must understand that the Chinese are trying to provide for and sustain a delicate expansion the likes of which the world has never seen. China at different times in history has been one of the worlds greatest powers and ingrained in Chinese society is the desire to become that way again. We need to realize a middle ground on the China issue that is between "hot competition and cold war".

[Solid Surfer]

Hi Kuai,

Those are some good points...I agree that China is not necessarily a danger to the U.S., and indeed the more successful its economy becomes, the more difficult it could be for the Communist Party to maintain its grip on power. At the same time, though, China's obsession over Taiwan is troubling, and things could get very dangerous if China actually tries to take Taiwan militarily, as America has pledged to defend Taiwan in such a case.