Georgia Population 2013
With the 10th fastest growth rate of 1.19%, the 2013 population is estimated at
10,038,171 having recently eclipsed 10 million residents.
I would venture to say that, on average, Georgians, including children, are at least 40
pounds over weight per person. That means every day we are awake, Georgians carry around 400 million pounds of excess weight.
So listen to this video and hopefully the chuckle you get should help you shed a few pounds.
Yours truly needs to lose 12 pounds, incidentally.
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From a very dear friend and fellow memo reader who received this from her Israeli friend.. (See 1 below.)
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Daniel is finishing writing up his own notes of his recent trip to Israel. Meanwhile, the local Pittsburgh paper
had this story. (See 2 below.)
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Kidnap leader arrested. (See 3 below.)
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Has Obama thrown in the towel? (See 4 below.)
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Sederot residents feel they are back to square one. (See 5 below.)
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The future Israel - Victor Davis Hanson. Far better than before the war in Gaza according to Hanson. (See 56 below.)
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Dick
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1) The truth about Hamas
True and heart breaking story
By Itzik Azar,
Translated by Moshe Mekler
July 2014...
Nisan Ayallon
A letter from Ahmed, son of a friend of mine from Gaza.
This letter came to my hands from Ahmed who lives in Gaza.
Background:
I knew Ahmed’s father, Mussah, who worked many years ago at a metalworking shop in south Tel Aviv district.
A very nice man who used to leave Gaza every morning at 04:00 am. He started work at 6:30am at the metalworking shop in the Tel Aviv.
Mussah worked hard in order to provide for his family to buy an apartment in the city of Gaza.
Ahmed, Mussah’s son used to come once in a while to help his father with his work.
Today Ahmed, is a 30 year old father and writes his history:
“Many years ago when my father had to leave his work in Tel Aviv he started to work in a small metalworking shop in Gaza.
Economy was hard and I used to help him work in order to provide for our family.
A minute after Israel had to leave the Gaza strip at 2006, Pickup trucks started driving around the city with thugs from Hamas raged the streets of the city, They were shooting everywhere and hitting every person that looked like he was against their agenda, people were afraid to walk the streets, my father banned my family to leave the house for a few days.
After a few days only me and my father went outside to the metalworking shop in order to provide for our family, every time we heard a vehicle we would fear and look for a hideout at the shop.
One day a pickup truck filled with Hamas thugs stopped by the shop, they went in and took the owner, two days after he came back with his face down and talked to my father, I sat aside and listened.
I understood Hamas notified him that from today his shop will work for Hamas, and Hamas only.
They set the prices and the demand that was ordered from the shop.
Since that day every morning an armed Hamas member used to come to the shop and give us orders to make winged metal pipes and straight ahead I understood that they were used to launch rockets.
One day a pickup truck drove by and stopped, the Hamas members came down and took my father from the shop, we never saw him again, later I understood they killed him and threw his body to a pit.
Life became harder and harder, work wasn’t easy, we got a small allowance that barely was enough for bread and milk.
One day a friend of mine offered me to come with him to do some work, since I needed the money I went with him.
We came to an apartment in Gaza, we were six guys, they put us at the back of a truck, we sat in the dark and couldn’t see where were going, we drove for an hour and finally they stopped and we come out of the truck standing in a closed building, we didn’t know where we are.
They showed us a whole in the ground and told us to go down, the slope was scary and we found ourselves inside a tunnel, we walked for a few hundred meters and we got to the end where two Hamas members waited for us, they gave us working tools and explained us what to do in order to make the tunnel longer.
Work was hard, we were suffocating from lack of air, we used to work 8 hour shifts and then 4 hours of rest, we stayed in the tunnel for 10 days.
The Hamas members changed every day, they used to scream on us and hit us when they thought supply of work was low, after 10 days they took us out, put us in a truck, gave us little money and drove us back to someplace in Gaza.
We didn’t know where we’ve been, what tunnel we dug, the pay was low but they did pay, I never came back to do that work.
I went back to try to get some work at the metalworking shop but I found that it was closed, I asked the neighbours what happened and they answered with fear that Hamas moved the shop to another location and nobody knew where, they told me that every morning a truck with Hamas members comes, picks up the workers, puts them at the closed back of the truck and drive them away and bring them back late at night.
I found my self working in temporary jobs in order to provide for my family.
We live in constant fear, once in a while a truck full with armed Hamas members comes by and attacks civilians.
We see in Gaza the rich Hamas members living in glamorous houses, driving new cars, sending their children to universities abroad while most of Gaza’s citizens living fear and poverty, without the ability to work.
Sometimes the kids are telling that Hamas giving away free candies in different locations around Gaza, the kids go to get the sweets and right after we hear that rockets were launched from the same location.
Israel retaliates to the same location and kids get hurt.
I write you this letter because the situation is very bad.
Luckily for us we are living in the city of Gaza but we have families that live in other parts of the Gaza strip, the Hamas runs a war against Israel, shooting rockets constantly on your communities and we the people of Gaza suffer the consequences, we just have no place to hide.
The members of Hamas are hiding in their bunkers under ground, some of them are not even in the Gaza strip, they are protected and they have no problem to continue to fight.
There were many families that rented Hamas rooms and yards at the back of their homes, the Hamas gave them money to put food on the table and now they fire rockets to Israel from those people’s homes, many of the homes get blown by your airforce strikes.
We suffer so much, we’re afraid of the Hamas, we’re afraid of your bombings, there are huge explosions all the time, we hear the sound of Hamas launching their rockets and we know that a minute their will be another sound of blast from your rockets.
We heard about the tunnels that Hamas dug and I understood that I helped them, what I don’t understand is why Hamas is doing everything possible to hurt Israel instead of developing the Gaza strip to make the peoples live better.
I hope everything will end and me and my family will survive, but I lost hope, I know that Hamas will take all the money that the world gives to restore Gaza and use it to build more tunnels, buy more weapons and build more villas for the heads of Hamas.
Hamas’s thugs will continue to drive the streets and hurt the civilians.
The only thing I can say is that some of Hamas leaders are hiding in bunkers under hospitals and schools because they know Israel won’t hurt them there and that’s a shame.
We part that the world will help to free us from the fearful and cruel Hamas rule in the Gaza strip.
I’m sure that if you’ll spread this letter you won’t expose my fathers real name who was your friend and neither my name.
I pray for death to all Hamas members and that we will get freedom and a chance to live a normal life for our children in Gaza.
I wish we can go back to the days my father worked in Tel Aviv with his good friends in Israel
Inshalla! مرحبا — עם
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2) ‘Shall your brothers come to war while you sit here?’ Three from Pittsburgh answer the call
The "Pittsburgh Relief Mission" packed trucks and delivered supplies to the troops in the north on their trip to Israel. Next to the soldier, from left, are Daniel Berkowitz, Daniel Kraut and Rabbi Daniel Wasserman.
When the young soldiers enter the house to rescue her, Hamas detonates a bomb in the house next door, murdering seven members of the Israel Defense Forces as well as the little girl.
Hamas militants are seen planting bombs in Gaza, all the while holding 5- and 6-year-olds. It’s a win-win: If the IDF doesn’t shoot in order to spare the children, the murderers get to plant their bombs. If the IDF does shoot, Hamas gets some great photos for the press.
The IDF soldiers stationed in Gaza have a standing order to kill all cows and donkeys on sight. Cows and donkeys? It seems Hamas has developed a penchant for strapping explosives onto animals.
These are the stories that are rarely reported in Western media accounts of Operation Protective Edge. But they are the stories recounted by IDF soldiers to three Pittsburghers who were in Israel last week to provide supplies as well as physical and moral support to those fighting terrorism, and the victims of that terrorism.
Rabbi Daniel Wasserman, Daniel Berkowitz and Daniel Kraut were motivated to travel to the Jewish state to help in any way they could by a Torah verse read on Shabbat a couple weeks ago, said Berkowitz. The verse was Numbers 32:6, in which Moses says: “Shall your brothers come to war while you sit here?”
Within a matter of days, the three men had secured a loan from an anonymous donor to fund their trip, with the understanding they will repay the loan within 18 months. The benefactor will then donate the repaid funds to charity, according to Berkowitz.
“I was inspired by Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg’s trip,” Berkowitz said, referring to a headline-grabbing jaunt made by the former New York City mayor early on in the current conflict. “That trip made such an impact on people in Israel, because they feel so alone.”
Wasserman, Berkowitz and Kraut, who called their trip the Pittsburgh Israel Relief Mission, were ready to do anything to help, Berkowitz said, from cleaning toilets to bolstering the economy by purchasing food and supplies for soldiers and victims from local vendors, whose livelihoods have been strangled by the conflict with Hamas.
“The primary and only purpose of the trip was to say, ‘Here are three sets of hands, put us to work,’” said Wasserman, spiritual leader of Shaare Torah Congregation. “‘Anything you need, let us help.’”
The group arrived in Israel on Wednesday, July 30 and headed to Israel’s northern border, where reservists had been called up to replace the active soldiers who were redeployed to Gaza.
“There are 70,000 reservists who were pulled from their jobs,” Berkowitz said. “They weren’t asking for checks. The requests I was seeing on Facebook were for things like underwear and deodorant.”
The group packed trucks and delivered supplies to the troops in the north, said Berkowitz. Things like ChapStick and bug spray are not part of their military issue, he said, but “make life more acceptable.”
The Pittsburgh community donated more than $15,000 for the group to buy supplies for soldiers and victims.
“We were just blown away,” said Wasserman. “The more we posted on Facebook [about the mission], the more people donated.”
On Thursday, the group headed to Sderot, a town in Israel’s south that has been under near-constant rocket fire from Gaza since 2001. While there, the men met with charities charged with providing safe spaces for children and reinforcing schools to become de facto bomb shelters so students will be able to stay in place when the warning sirens sound.
A siren sounded while Wasserman, Berkowitz and Kraut were visiting a kindergarten room.
“There were six incoming rockets,” Berkowitz said. “They either fell in open areas, or were intercepted by the Iron Dome [anti-missile system]. But the walls of the schools were shaking.”
The nerves of the teachers and the children there are frayed, he said.
“Some of the kids won’t go to the bathroom, because they are afraid they won’t be able to get to the shelter in time if there’s a siren,” Berkowitz continued, adding that one of the teachers there was so “shell-shocked” that even the sound of a dropped pencil would get her agitated.
“This is the life they live,” he said.
The group delivered letters and drawings prepared by children in Pittsburgh to soldiers recuperating in hospitals.
“We wanted to let them know that in America, we are there for them,” Wasserman said.
While in the south, Wasserman, Berkowitz and Kraut met with Micha Stiebel, originally from Pittsburgh, who is now a sergeant in the IDF. He had just finished 10 days of fighting in Gaza.
“We called Micha and asked if there was anything we could bring him,” Wasserman recounted. “He said, ‘lunch.’”
The men called a pizza shop, ordered 35 pies and delivered the food to Micha and his unit.
“When we picked up the pizzas, there were 10 other soldiers in the shop, so we paid for their lunches too,” Wasserman said.
The most remarkable thing about the trip for Kraut was seeing firsthand the youth and heroism of the IDF soldiers.
“The most important take away I have is how young the Israeli soldiers are,” Kraut said. “Almost all of the soldiers we saw, whether in the field or in the hospitals or, sadly, at the funerals are between the ages of 18 to 20. They are teenagers who are experiencing the worst of humanity in Hamas.
“I cannot imagine at 18 years old having to make the life decisions they have to make as soldiers fighting against terrorists who use children as shields and for suicide bombs to kill Israeli soldiers,” Kraut continued. “All of the stories we heard involved incredible acts of heroism. These are teenage heroes. Even the commanders of the units were 20 years old.
“Despite what these soldiers have gone through they continue to show an incredible love of life and want to go right back to fighting for the safety of all Jews and the State of Israel.”
Israel, it seems, has become one large family in the face of the murderous threats of Hamas.
“The beautiful part about the Jewish State of Israel is that it is one big family,” Kraut said. “As we traveled to military bases, the cities like Sderot, facing constant rocket fire from Hamas, and hospitals, we met hundreds of Israelis bringing food, clothing, and toiletries to the soldiers, their families and the residences of cities like Sderot.
“The hospitals were overflowing with visitors to the chayalim (soldiers), who did not know them, but wanted to show their ahavat yisrael (love of their fellow Jew),” he continued.
The minority of Jews who do not support Israel in its struggle to protect itself from terrorism would benefit from a visit to the Jewish state, according to Wasserman.
“My heart goes out to those Jews who are so blind to the reality,” he said. “And I challenge them to come with me on a trip to Israel.”
The reality becomes clear when one witnesses firsthand the conditions Israelis have been forced to endure, he said. “We saw the missiles. We heard them. Two hours into a cease-fire, we heard the missiles. If you have to go to war, it’s a blessing that the mission is clear, the enemy is clear and the cause is clear.”
The support of Diaspora Jews is critical for the Israeli population, Wasserman added.
“Just knowing people are there for them is very important,” he said. “We have to keep it up.”
The mission returned to Pittsburgh on Aug. 3.
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3) Commander of cell that kidnapped teens arrested
Hebron resident Hussam al-Qawasme admitted in his interrogation that Hamas financed the kidnapping on June 12
The Israeli army and Security Agency's forces (Shin Bet) apprehended three weeks ago the commander of the cell that kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teens in the West Bank two months ago, it was cleared for publication on Tuesday.
Hebron resident Hussam al-Qawasme, a relative of one of the suspects in the kidnapping, admitted in his interrogation that he was in charge of Marwan al-Qawasme, 29, and Amer abu Aisha, 33, Hamas activists from Hebron and the main suspects in the kidnapping and murder of Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel on June 12.
Hussam, who was captured in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat, revealed that he got the financing for the kidnapping from Hamas activists in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian security sources told Israeli news site Walla! that Hussam tried to escape to Jordan aided by his family and using fake documentation.
The sources also said that there is a direct connection between the cell that kidnapped the three teens and Hamas leadership in Gaza and outside of the Strip.
A group of former Palestinian prisoners, who were released in Shalit prisoner-swap deal, is operating in Gaza under the auspices of former Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hamad and Saleh Al-Aruri, a Hamas official currently based in Ankara.
The two Hamas leaders are responsible for the planning of dozens of terrorist plots in the West Bank, the sources added.
Marwan al-Qawasme and Amer abu Aisha are still at large.
On June 26 the Israeli army has cleared for publication Marwan and Amer, Hamas activists from Hebron, who previously served time in Israeli prisons, were the main suspects in the kidnapping of the teens.
Israeli forces have been conducting a manhunt for the two since the search for the teens began on June 13.
Abu Aisha's brother, Zaid, was a Hamas operative who was killed in 2005 during clashes with Israeli forces.
Al-Qawasme's uncle, Abdullah, was the commander of Hamas' military arm in Hebron. He was killed by Israeli forces in 2003.
Al-Qawasme was arrested when he was 18 and was sentences to ten months in jail in 2004. Since then he was rearrested four times. During his last interrogation in 2010 he admitted that he was recruited by Hamas in Hebron in 2009 and received training. He also learned how to build an explosive device and helped enlist other young men to Hamas. He remained in jail until March 2012.
Abu Aisha was first arrested in 2005, interrogated and held in administrative detention until June 2006. He was arrested again in April of 2007.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4) Poll: 41 Percent Say Obama No Longer Wants to Be POTUS
Perhaps one might be forgiven for reaching such a conclusion. Attending fundraisers (oftentimes shortly after major international crises break), playing rounds and rounds of golf, and attacking Republicans in the mostpetulant way possible are not the stuff of highly engaged leaders. (This isn’t to say, of course, that the president shouldn’t be allowed to do any of these things. But the timing and frequency with which he engages in these activities, according to Fox News’relatively new survey, suggests that many Americans firmly accept that he is exceedingly disinterested and tired of political life). Hence this:
It’s telling that almost 50 percent of Independents and more than one-third of Democrats believe President Obama has essentially thrown in the towel. That is, it’s not just Republicans contending he's grown weary of occupying the nation's most coveted political office. This is true across the political spectrum. It’s clear therefore that the president fully understands -- at least deep down, I think -- that the chances of him once again enjoying majorities in both the House and Senate are rather slim, if not impossible.
Perhaps this is why the prospect of governing a divided Congress, for another two years, is becoming less a privilege than a chore.
Fox News Poll: Voters say Obama exceeded authority, but oppose...
Author: Dave Bender
Source: Algemeiner.
“We have survived rocket attacks for 14 years, and, while disturbing and frightening, we have somehow adapted,” a Kibbutz Alumim resident told The Algemeiner on Sunday.
“…each time there is an alarm we freak out, but act, running to safety and praying,” said Esther Marcus, 49, from her rocket-proof shelter at her communal home, facing the Islamist coastal enclave.
However, on the prospect of tunnels being dug beneath their feet, her laconic mood changed to one of concern.
“The threat of a tunnel being under our doorsteps has taken that fear to a new level,” she admitted.
“How do I act now? How do we protect ourselves?” she wrote.
Despite local reports that alluded to major moves out of Gaza territory, the IDF Spokesman was far cagier when speaking with The Algemeiner.
The IDF, according to Ynet News, pulled out “the majority of its ground forces back to staging areas outside Gaza on Sunday.”
However, the army, for its part, only allowed that, “At the moment, (IDF) forces are moving in order to fulfill ongoing missions to defend Israel, and reaching goals the army set for itself,” a spokesman said, in a telephone interview.
Marcus, a mother of four, made Aliya (immigrated to Israel) from London in 1984 and has been living in her rural community since 1991. She is a married to another immigrant.
A social worker by profession, Marcus — ironically enough — wrote a children’s book entitled, “Color Red,” meant “to help kiddies deal with the situation; help them cope with Red Alert sirens.”
But, now, with the diabolical possibility of terror tunnels from below opening up, literally, beneath kindergartens, “now I need to come up with a story to help them cope with tunnels!!! that’s a challenge!”
In the four weeks since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge, IDF forces have uncovered dozens of such well-constructed and equipped tunnels opening into kibbutz areas, near children’s playgrounds, dining halls, and fields.
But, despite the emerging mortal threat, she stressed that “no, no thoughts on moving.”
“Like I said,” she noted, “…call it stupid? (But) we actually live in a vibrant, healthy, supportive community.”
“No one is considering leaving,” she concluded.
A number of soldiers have died and others have been wounded in firefights with Hamas terrorists attempting to infiltrate Israeli villages through the tunnels, and there have been at least two abduction attempts against soldiers, including that of Givati Brigade officer Hadar Goldin on Friday.
Goldin was laid to rest at his home in Kfar Saba on Sunday afternoon.
The army said that 64 soldiers and officers had been killed since the start of fighting, and some 140 wounded. Palestinian sources say 1,600 have been killed in Israeli retaliation strikes, including hundreds of minors. However, casualty claims on the Palestinian side are provided by Hamas-backed and supporting groups, and none specify who are militants and who are non-combatants, according to Israeli officials and foreign media.
Eshie, a veteran member of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, told Channel 2 News that “a great many of the members have stayed here, and I’m hearing from most of them that they have major concerns about the tunnels’ threat.”
“There’s a sense of uncertainty and anxiety,” he noted. “This causes people (who temporarily sought refuge elsewhere) to think twice before packing their bags to return to the kibbutz.”
Eshie feels that, even after any pullout, the IDF will need to bulk up its forces, in order to provide residents with a sense of security.
“We rely on the IDF, and hope they will know how to redeploy in order not to make the same mistakes as in the past,” he said.
Nahal Oz resident Tami Levy said she was torn over what the army’s next steps should be
“Too many soldiers have died, and, from that standpoint, I’d want this to end,” she said. “But, on the other hand, the last ‘Red Alert’ siren was at 04:00 am, and it won’t be the last.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired salvo after salvo of rocket and mortar shells at Alumim and surrounding communities throughout the interview with Marcus.
“…and yet somehow we go on. Call it human nature, call it a Jewish instinct, call it stupidity, call it SURVIVAL,” she emphasized.
“We just do what we can and admire the soldiers and families of soldiers, and, at the end of the day we believe in the big man upstairs … may it all be His will,” she concluded, hopefully.
Breaking, unconfirmed reports indicate that at least one person sustained serious wounds from a mortar strike at Sdot Negev and at Mifalsim on Sunday afternoon.
Hamas also took responsibility for heavy barrages fired at Tel Aviv, the densely populated Gush Dan region, Beersheba and surrounding towns during 5 PM rush hour.
There were no immediate reports, however of injury or damage in those attacks.
The IDF reported that Iron Dome batteries near both Tel Aviv and Beersheba downed at least four
projectiles aimed to hit within Israel’s commercial and cultural center, home to nearly a third of its nearly
8 million citizens.
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6) A Stronger Israel?
Elite opinion believes Israel will lose “long-term” whatever happens in the next weeks. Not necessarily.
By Victor Davis Hanson
In postmodern wars, we are told, there is no victory, no defeat, no aggressors, no
defenders, just a tragedy of conflicting agendas. But in such a mindless and amoral landscape, Israel in fact is on its way to emerging in a far better position after the Gaza war than before.
Analysts of the current fighting in Gaza have assured us that even if Israel weakens Hamas, such a short-term victory will hardly lead to long-term strategic success — but they don’t define “long-term.” In this line of thinking, supposedly in a few weeks Israel will only find itself more isolated than ever. It will grow even more unpopular in Europe and will perhaps, for the first time, lose its patron, America — while gaining an enraged host of Arab and Islamic enemies. Meanwhile, Hamas will gain stature, rebuild, and slowly wear Israel down.
But if we compare the Gaza war with Israel’s past wars, that pessimistic scenario hardly rings true. Unlike in the existential wars of 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973, Israel faces no coalition of powerful conventional enemies. Syria’s military is wrecked. Iraq is devouring itself. Egypt is bankrupt and in no mood for war. Its military government is more worried about Hamas than about Israel. Jordan has no wish to attack Israel. The Gulf States are likewise more afraid of the axis of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood than of Israel — a change of mentality that has no historical precedent. In short, never since the birth of the Jewish state have the traditional enemies surrounding Israel been in such military and political disarray. Never have powerful Arab states quietly hoped that Israel would destroy an Islamist terrorist organization that they fear more than they fear the Jewish state.
But is not asymmetrical warfare the true threat to Israel? The West, after all, has had little success in achieving long-term victories over terrorist groups and insurgents — remember Afghanistan and Iraq. How can tiny Israel find security against enemies who seem to gain political clout and legitimacy as they incur ever greater losses, especially when there is only a set number of casualties that an affluent, Western Israel can afford, before public support for the war collapses? How can the Israelis fight a war that the world media portray as genocide against the innocents?
In fact, most of these suppositions are simplistic. The U.S., for example, defeated assorted Islamic insurgents in what was largely an optional war in Iraq; a small token peacekeeping force might have kept Nouri al-Maliki from hounding Sunni politicians, and otherwise kept the peace. Israel’s recent counterinsurgency wars have rendered both the Palestinians on the West Bank and pro-Iranian Hezbollah militants in Lebanon less, not more, dangerous. Hamas, not Israel, would not wish to repeat the last three weeks.
Oddly, Hezbollah, an erstwhile ally of Hamas, has been largely quiet during the Gaza war. Why, when the use of its vast missile arsenal, in conjunction with Hamas’s rocketry, might in theory have overwhelmed Israel’s missile defenses? The answer is probably the huge amount of damage suffered by Hezbollah in the 2006 war in Lebanon, and its inability to protect its remaining assets from yet another overwhelming Israeli air response. Had Hamas’s rockets hit their targets, perhaps Hezbollah would have joined in. But for now, 2014 looks to them a lot like 2006.
In the current asymmetrical war, Israel has found a method of inflicting as much damage on Hamas as it finds politically and strategically useful without suffering intolerable losses. And because the war is seen as existential — aiming rockets at a civilian population will do that — Israeli public opinion will largely support the effort to retaliate.
As long as Israel does not seek to reoccupy Gaza, it can inflict enough damage on the Hamas leadership, and on both the tunnels and the missile stockpiles, to win four or five years of quiet. In the Middle East, that sort of calm qualifies as victory. And the more the world sees of the elaborate tunnels and vast missile arsenals that an impoverished Hamas had built with other people’s money, and the more these military assets proved entirely futile in actual war, the more Hamas appears not just foolish but incompetent, if not ridiculous, as well.
After all the acrimony dies down, Gazans will understand that there was a correlation between blown-up houses, on the one hand, and, on the other, tunnel entrances, weapon depots, and the habitat of the Hamas leadership. Even the Hamas totalitarians will not be able to keep that fact hidden. As the rubble is cleared away, too many Gazans will ask of their Hamas leaders whether the supposedly brilliant strategy of asymmetrical warfare was worth it. Hamas’s intended war — blanketing Israel with thousands of rockets that would send video clips around the world of hundreds of thousands of Jews trembling in fear in shelters — failed in its first hours. The air campaign was about as successful as the tunnel war, which was supposed to allow hit teams to enter Israel to kidnap and kill, with gruesome videos posted all over the Internet. Both strategies largely failed almost upon implementation.
In terms of domestic politics, Israel has rarely been more united — akin to the United States right after 9/11. The Israeli Left and Right agree that no modern Western state can exist under periodic clouds of rockets and missiles. Similarly, the attrition of Hamas only plays into the hands of the Palestinian Authority, which understandably stayed out of the war and did not incite the West Bank to stage simultaneous attacks. Like it or not, after the Gaza war, Israel will be dealing in the near future with Palestinians who do not always think preemptive rocket and tunnel attacks work to their own strategic advantage.
In terms of economics, Israel is no longer subject to carbon-fuel blackmail. It will soon become a major exporter of natural gas, and political realities will reflect that commercial importance. If one cynically believes that much of the global tilt to the Palestinians began as an aftershock from the 1973 oil embargoes, then Israeli exports may soon be reflected in more favorable politics.
Is Israel politically isolated? It certainly seems that way, if one looks at the response to the Gaza war among Western journalists, academics, politicians, and popular culture. But public opinion in the United States remains staunchly pro-Israel in spite of the American elite culture’s romance with Hamas and the Palestinians. Moreover, the Democratic party is facing its own increasing existential crisis, as its establishment pro-Israel donors and politicians are appalled by the increasingly anti-Israel tones of its ever more radical base. After the Gaza war, some major Democratic supporters of Israel will quietly make the necessary adjustments, in recognition that both their party and the Obama administration seem to prefer Hamas to democratic Israel. The upcoming 2014 midterm election does not favor candidates who are anti-Israel, but rather pro-Israeli conservatives. After 2016 there is unlikely to be a president who shares the incoherent views of Barack Obama on the Middle East. Fairly or not, it appears that the administration is trying to hide its pro-Hamas sympathies and is doing so unprofessionally and ineptly.
Europe, of course, remains mostly hostile to Israel, a hatred that predates the Gaza war. But the current demonstrations of virulent anti-Semitic hatred do not reflect well on the European Union. At present, it appears that European nations either cannot or will not confront their own fascistic Islamic radicals, which leaves open the question of whether the Islamist message of the streets resonates with Europeans.The European hostility to Israel does not stem just from events on the ground in Gaza, but is more a reflection of Europe’s inability to deal with its 20th-century past. Demonization, the more virulent the better, of Israelis seems to ease guilt over the Holocaust — as if to imply that, while the genocide was regrettable, there was something innately savage in Jewish culture, now manifested in Gaza, that might understandably have incited past generations of more radical Europeans. Otherwise, Europeans simply mask with trendy ideology the more materialistic assessment that demography, oil, and the fear of terrorism weigh in favor of allying with the Palestinians. Either way, European anti-Semitism is a bankrupt ideology, one that manifests itself in sympathy for an undemocratic, misogynistic, homophobic, and religiously intolerant Hamas, along with selective unconcern with the many occupations, refugees, divided cities, and walled borders that exist in the wide world outside the Middle East.
The U.N. will emerge after the war in an even sorrier state. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has offered mostly platitudes and buffooneries. Certainly, he would never take his own advice if North Korea were to move in the manner of Hamas. Hamas’s use of U.N. facilities to hide arsenals could not have occurred without U.N. complicity. What little credibility the U.N. had in the Middle East before the war is mostly shredded.
Iran is watching the war, and its surrogate is not doing well. There is no particular reason why an Israeli anti-missile system could not knock down an Iranian missile. Nor is Hezbollah as fiery in deed as in word these days. The message to Iran is that Israel will fight back in whatever way it finds appropriate against its enemy of the moment.
Gaza is a military and political minefield. But if Israel continues on its present course, it will emerge far better off than Hamas and better off than it was before Hamas began its missile barrage. And in the Middle East, that is about as close to victory as one gets. The future for Israel is not bleak, just as it is not bleak for any nation that chooses to defend itself from savage enemies that seek its destruction.
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