Comments on Bernard Avishai Dot Com: Eyeless in Gaza: Geometric Logic

"When you're a hammer, every problem is a nail." T...

2008-01-22T02:14:00.000-05:00

"When you're a hammer, every problem is a nail."

This made my day (and it's only 9am.)

Oh yes, my main blog is Dove's Eye ViewThanks for ...

2008-01-21T14:07:00.000-05:00

Oh yes, my main blog is Dove's Eye View

Thanks for alerting me to your new effort.

Mr. Avishai, thank you for this post. I have been ...

2008-01-21T14:05:00.000-05:00

Mr. Avishai, thank you for this post. I have been feeling sick over Gaza again today. I'm a cancer patient with metastases to the liver and my poor liver just throbs when I read this stuff. I blogged my despair in the middle of the night.

Your post today reminds me that humanity does continue to exist. Thank you.

There is no doubt that (call them) "messianic" kid...

2008-01-20T05:03:00.000-05:00

There is no doubt that (call them) "messianic" kids will grow older and harden into sociopaths, even beyond a generation of formal peace. The question is, as Petraeus implies, 1) how to reduce their number and surround them with family, friends, widely accepted leaders, etc., who will claim a stake in stability and economic betterment, 2) how to stop turning Gaza into a veritable factory for such people, and (related to this) 3) do the so-called preemptive attacks actually fuel the despair that causes more and more of the surrounding population to side with Hamas emotionally, even if they want a peaceful (i.e., two-state) solution. It is worth the time to see Khalil Shikaki's data at http://www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2007/p26e1.html
The correspondence between despair and Hamas support is direct. But then, this should be common sense for people who have seen the growth of these movements over the past two generation of occupation.

I differ with the simplistic formulations of bar_k...

2008-01-20T04:17:00.000-05:00

I differ with the simplistic formulations of bar_kochba132 (whoever he/she may be), but they're not totally wrong. Your key phrase is coming up with an offer so fair that not even Hamas can reject it, which means avoiding consideration of the possibility that no such animal exists. It may be uncomfortable to take seriously Hamas's honest statement that their goal and entire raison d'etre are to wipe Israel out, but it is willful folly (and condescension) to treat it as though it were a mere bargaining position.

We're looking at war, Bernie. Not just politics, or public relations, or some other indirect mode of pursuing hostilities, but actual war, pressed by a regime which is eager to sacrifice its civilians. The suffering of that population is the direct and intentional consequence of the continued bombardment of Israeli civilian targets. There is no symmetry or rationale that we can make sense of. The Palestinians have alternatives which they reject. Peaceful development of Gaza would have made a huge difference in achieving every one of Palestine's political goals, and generating irresistible international pressure on Israel to end the occupation. But they chose what they chose, and cry "foul" over the muted consequences, as Israel fights back with enormous restraint.

Israel needs a left which is clearly capable of distinguishing between legitimate self-defense and messianist, expansionist adventurism. Failure to do that reduces it to sad irrelevance.

Bernie, didn't you tell us just a couple of postin...

2008-01-20T00:24:00.000-05:00

Bernie, didn't you tell us just a couple of postings ago how your friend Olmert has finally "seen the light" and become a man of peace? How do you explain him carryin out this policy in Gaza?
In any event you are repeating this ancient canard that "current Israeli policy is creating extremism among the Arabs". Arab anti-Jewish extremist didn't start in 1967, it didn't start with the building of the settlements in Judea/Samara, it began with the beginning of the modern Zionist movement over 100 years ago. That is why there were anti-Jewish riots in 1920, 1921, 1929, 1936-1939 and then full-scale wars 1947-1949, 1956 and 1967. Do you begin to see a pattern, Bernie? The Arabs oppose ANY national Jewish presence here.
Your pal Olmert recently stated that "Israel is doomed unless we create a Palestinian state now". Isn't that what the Arabs want? Do you mean to tell me that after Olmert says that that Abbas and the rest of the Arab world will now say "did you hear what Olmert said? We had better hurry up so that we can save Israel for Olmert!" Does that make sense?
As I pointed out in a previous comment, the official Palestinian television has begun rebroadcasting a piece praising shahidin "martyrs" and showing all the virigins and other goodies they get in the next world. Why do you think they are doing this? Apparently, they are preparing for another explosion of violence when this phony Annapolis-process reaches its inevitable dead-end, just like Arafat did when he decided to reject the Camp David and Taba offerings.
Israel had better wake up to reality. I am not saying the situation is hopeless, what I am saying is this phony "peace process" and nonsense like the "2-state solution" and "territories for peace" which you and your friends have been pushing for decades now have reached a dead-end and it is time to look for Israel to stop thinking that "globalization" is going to solve our problems and that the Arabs can be pacified by waving cash in front of them, but rather a return to our Jewish/Zionist roots and Jewish "tzumud" (steadfastness) in Eretz Israel instead.