Parsing The Conflict

"Hamas is very keen to try to return itself to diplomatic and regional relevance. ... I think precisely that's a key motivation behind that side's activities."
"Even when you look to Western European countries, they have these very photogenic demonstrations taking place in Paris and in London and in elsewhere, but the governments of those countries remain broadly understanding of Israel's position. Certainly there haven't been massive demonstrations of support in the Arab world."
"My sense is that this conflict is very unlikely to result in the removal of Hamas from governance in Gaza. This conflict will just be remembered as another episode in an ongoing conflict."
Jonathon Spyer, senior researcher, Global Research in International Affairs Centre, Herzliya, Israel

Israeli soldiers uncover a Palestinian tunnel in Gaza Strip. Photograph: IDF spokesman/Rex 

"Israel is primarily looking for military gains and those aren't in the form of a ceasefire agreement. Those are in the form of actual military gains on the ground in terms of the destruction of Hamas tunnels and the destruction of rockets and even the killing of Hamas leaders."
"Hamas and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip feel that they're under an unjust siege and that they deserve open crossings. Israel feels that the closed crossings are because Hamas fires the rockets and that they can't trust Hamas."
"Concessions will probably be modest ... perhaps limited opening of crossings."
"If Israel is going to kill civilians as so-called 'collateral damage', in other words non-targeted civilians, they have to show that the casualty rate is somehow arguably proportionate to the military gains sought. If Israel falls short in its military gains, then it can more likely be accused of using disproportionate use of force."
Mira Sucharov, associate professor, political science, Carleton University, Ottawa

Palestinians throw stones at members of the Israeli army during the funeral of three Palestinians, who medics said were killed during clashes with Israeli troops, in Beit Ommar town north of the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday.

Mussa Qawasma/Reuters

"[Conflict] will continue until the moment that the international pressure becomes unbearable by both or [until] the level of destruction reaches an absolutely unacceptable level."
"If the scenario of Hamas destruction becomes a reality, the next generation [of radical Islamists] is going to even more radical than Hamas."
Houchang Hassan-Yari, professor, political science, Royal Military College, Kingston, Ontario

Not much had been heard from Hamas in the past few years as concerns over Hamas have been pushed to the background while the Middle East reeled from one Arab Spring crisis to another. From Tunisia to Egypt, Libya to Syria, then on to Iraq, the enfeebling and overthrow of tyrannical overseers when populations felt entitled to express the audacity for change, has ended in brutality and sectarian bloodshed where the protesters had hoped for liberation.

The rise of the Islamic State (IS) and ongoing violence in Libya has sounded the death knell to liberation from tyranny and violence as violent fundamentalist Islamists have taken the opportunity given them by regional instability to liberate from the hands of their military oppressors vast stocks of weaponry, basic and advanced with which to continue to ply their Middle East and North African inroads to theocratic Islamist advances.

In one battle alone that took place in Syria earlier in the week 700 people were killed, adding to the carnage that the three-year-old sectarian civil war that had begun with high hopes and a modest protest for equality between Sunni and the dominating Shiite regime, and is a long way from ending yet with the death toll having reached 170,000. The regime of President Bashar al Assad's Baathist party has overseen a military that uses siege starvation, barrel bombs, helicopter gunships and chemical weapons to bring the insurgents into line through hastening their departure from life.

The ascent of ISIS toward the Islamic Caliphate, the carnage in Syria, the unwillingness of the Iraqi Shiite-led government to offer its Sunni population equality and hope for the future, has alarmed the greater Middle East in these impossible, albeit very real and frightening outcomes. Fundamentalism in the form of Islamist terrorism seems to look increasingly less attractive to the remaining Sunni Arab states in the process and with the exception of Qatar and Turkey they have withdrawn their kind regard for Hamas.

Hamas resolutely, with no interest in compromise whatever; leaving it to Fatah which it intends to overtake in any event, will never surrender the main tenet of its covenant, to destroy Israel. This is its sole raison d'etre, its pride and its honour displayed unabashedly for the world to see, even though in the West the response has been to half-heartedly declare it an official terrorist organization. The 'unjust siege' imposed upon Gaza by Israel stems from that single fact.

As for Israel, what is the purpose of offering concessions when they all lead to enabling a vicious enemy to continue its assaults, graduating from home-made rockets to professionally engineered, more lethal rockets supplied courtesy of Syria and Iran through Sudanese connivance. What those international bodies speak of as 'concessions' are the type of surrender to the inevitability of conquest by a fiercely hostile neighbour they would never countenance for themselves.

For Israel, opening up the border crossings to Gaza from Israel equates with signing its own death warrant. Add to that the purpose-built network of tunnels running deep and wide from Gaza into Israel to achieve entrance by stealth for the purpose of committing atrocities on Israelis whether civilians or military personnel, and there is the formula for the destruction of a country by a fiercely hateful force dedicated to that very task and none other.

"Israel must be permitted to crush Hamas in the Gaza Strip. [Allowing it to survive will result in Hamas continuing to] mount devastating attacks at the time of their choosing. [The Israeli army must] ferret Hamas out of its holes [to put an end to the cycle of violence forced upon Israel, and in the process saving countless lives]", postulated Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, writing an opinion piece in The Washington Post.

In Ramallah earlier in the week, Mahmoud Abbas in a bid to raise his fallen reputation among Palestinians praised "the forces of resistance that are fighting heroically against the occupying army that is committing crimes and slaughtering our compatriots". That speech, said protesters, gave them the courage to take to the streets rather than fear that PA security forces would shut down the protests. And when hundreds of Hamas supporters streamed toward an Israeli checkpoint with green flags held aloft they were blocked by a cordon of PA forces.

Their tactical response was to simply wind they way around onto a side street, whereupon the PA force disappeared beyond into another neighbourhood rather than attempting to prevent what finally occurred; a violent clash with Israeli forces where shots ricocheted around the area. "This last speech has contributed to the people rising in a more daring manner. The PA has suddenly changed its position toward Israel", said a graduate student who would render only his first name, Mahmoud.

"It realizes every day that negotiations with Israel failed ... and the resistance taking place in Gaza is providing a model to all Palestinians."