Interruption/Update:
Obama has chosen Dennis Ross
"to coordinate policy toward Iran."
Last night I happened to watch some of the PBS Online NewsHour; Margaret Warner was discussing "the U.S. role in Mideast peace talks" with Martin "No More Blank Checks" Indyk and Robert Malley. Both are prospective if not actual participants in the Obama administration.
The segment was absolutely chilling, and not only because they all assume the knee-jerk leftist anti-Israel worldview, but truly shockingly, they talked about the HAMAS as if it were the British parliament, as if the Hamas were actually a legitimate player in international politics. All three treated the terrorist organization of Hamas as though it enjoys a stature equivalent to the sovereign state of Israel (but more popular). You should watch it, but I warn you: if you love Israel, you will want to flee Obama's America and the sooner, the better.
Unlike most PBS viewers, I had actually spoken with an Israeli general earlier in the same day, and could compare the two. I don't want to gush too much about it, as I already embarrassed myself by coming very close to bursting into tears when I got the chance to ask a question of Effi Eitam, Minister of the Knesset and Brig. General (res.).
When Gen. Eitam speaks of Hamas, it sounds nothing like the British parliament. Like Israelis in general, Eitam in particular considers Hamas a savage, bloodthirsty and wicked terrorist organization. They are the enemy, the enemy of Israel, the enemy of western civilization, and even the enemy of the Arabs in Gaza. You see, he's been hearing reports from witnesses on the ground that Hamasniks are shooting people in the foot to keep them from fleeing Gaza. They grab children in the streets and use them as human shields. They hide in hospitals, feeling certain that Israel can not get at them there.
Eitam seemed quite certain that popular support for Hamas - seen as recently as mid-December at their 21st anniversary rally - is hugely eroded now. He explained this, with a great deal of perhaps unexpected compassion, from the point of view of "civilians" there: Hamas is not functioning as a government, it has proven itself not only useless to the people -having abandoned them to go hide in bunkers underground and providing no basic services (e.g. electricity and running water) - but also actually robbing the population of their aid packages and engaging in the most cynical acts of exploitation, where they further endanger innocent people. (I suspect that few are innocent, but Eitam seems to hold otherwise; either I am too jaded or he is too generous).
The Minister/General is crytal clear on the moral legitimacy of Operation"Cast Lead." He says, "Enough is enough." Hamas has been terrorizing Israelis near the Gaza border for eight years. And now that the range of their attacks has extended to 40 or more kms. into Israel, more than a million Israelis are in mortal danger.
As to the military matzav (situation), Eitam said, "We are doing well." As of yesterday Israel had Gaza City surrounded and blockaded on all sides (except for the Mediterranean sea on the west). The clear goal is to end both the capability and the will of Hamas to launch rockets at Israeli civilian populations. In doing so, Israel will also be re-establishing their capacity to deter future attacks (see explanation of deterrence as a military strategy), a capacity gravely diminished by our "failure" in the 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
To these ends, Tzahal (IDF) ambitiously intends to separate out the civilian population from the terrorists and move them from Gaza City 10 kms to the south -- amazingly, to what Eitam calls the "dunes," what used to be the Jewish communities of Gush Katif. This operation sounds absolutely staggering to me; the idea is to move 300,000 to 400,00 people out of Gaza City, along an IDF-protected "corridor" to the dunes, where an enormous humanitarian aid operation will await them -- with tents, food, medicine, doctors, mobile hospitals etc. In this plan it is Israel who will be protecting and caring for the Arabs of Gaza, in what Eitam thinks will be a stark contrast to Hamas, who abandoned and abused them. He seems to think the people will see and understand this contrast and make their judgements accordingly. I have to defer to his opinion on this because he's there and he's the expert; bloggers in pajamas thousands of miles away from the war cannot be but humble. Plus, I really hope he's right, that this is even possible.
Once this has been accomplished, Israel will consider everyone left in Gaza City to be either outright Hamas or Hamas supporters. From that point I believe he said it would take 10 days to a week to bring Hamas to the point where basically, they will not be able or willing to attack Israel again (Eitam cautioned that there could always be another rocket or two... or more).
A diplomatic process is underway now that "buys time" for the "wall" of this protected corridor to be put in place. Eitam asserts (or hopes?) that this diplomatic mechanism will not involve Hamas, but only Israel, Egypt and other actual sovereign nations [which Hamas is not, though it pretends to be]. The [Israeli] diplomatic goal is to organize a coalition of Israeli, Egyptian and international forces (and technology) that can monitor the Philadelphi[a?] Corridor where the Hamas tunnels were and some still are, denying Hamas the ability to further re-arm.
That's it for me for the time being. The call was extremely wide-ranging and addressed the protests in the Arab world, Europe and America, as well as the Iranian nuclear threat and Eitam's thoughts on the future of Judea and Samaria (known to leftists as the "West Bank"). It was all extraordinarily fascinating, but I'm afraid if I go on too long, no one will bother to read it all. So consider this merely Part One :)
If you have an hour to spare, you really should listen to the entire recording (or rather, "Audio Exclusive") at One Jerusalem:
http://www.onejerusalem.org/2009/01/exclusive-one-jerusalem-interv.php.
I am deeply indebted to One Jerusalem for giving me this singular and incredible opportunity to hear and to speak with Effi Eitam, whom I found to be a really superior human being (thus, the sticker at the top). Sorry, I don't know how else to word it so that it doesn't sound so cheesy.
Listen to the audio if you can, because I guarantee that you will come away not only impressed, but deeply heartened and strengthened in your love for Israel.
It is a great loss to the American public - one that conceivably threatens our country's future - that Dhimmedia ignores the wisdom and virtue of Israelis like Effi Eitam... and concentrates instead on promoting the politically-correct anti-Zionism of Indyk and Malley.
There were almost a hundred people on the call and I don't know who they all were, but scanning the J-blogosphere I see that the following have posted their impressions:
and the "Blogress Diva" herself, Atlas Shrugs.
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