The Military War, The Public Relations War

"You're talking about hundreds of kilometres of tunnels used for various operations. They are used to move commanders and troops underground,they are used to move munitions, rocket, fuel, food, everything."

"This is a war of attrition. The Israeli Defense Forces can go with this forever, and they [Hamas] can go on sadly also for a very long time."

"But the price they are paying is rising higher and higher."

Brigadier-general Yaron Rosen, former Israeli air division commander

"The United States remains greatly concerned by the escalating violence. Hundreds of people killed or injured, including children being pulled from the rubble."

"[U.S. officials are] working around the clock [to bring an end of the conflict."

U.S.Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Explosions are seen in Gaza City as Israeli forces target the Palestinian enclave with airstrikes early Tuesday.   CNN

 

The ongoing conflict has thus far brought little notice that Gulf states which had invested in opening ties with Israel are indicating signals of second thoughts. But under these circumstances it is also now highly unlikely that Israel will be able, despite its wish to do so, to expand its ties with Arab countries. The diplomats representing the West have no access to diplomatic overtures with the Hamas organization since it is universally regarded as a terrorist group. Egypt, however, does have diplomatic contact with Hamas, and it is front-and-center with its own efforts to persuade both sides to set aside attacks.

The fly in that ointment for Israel, is that the current conflagration is only one of many, although the ferocity of this round of rocket barrages is far more voluminous and certainly more successful than those in the past, given that they are penetrating further into Israel -- as far as Tel Aviv. In that sense, Hamas has succeeded == thanks to the patronage of the Islamic Republic of Iran which ships the rockets and missiles through circuitous routes to Gaza, and pays for them -- in assaulting Israel deeply in a way never before experienced.

The other problem is that citizens of Israel cannot continue to be subjected to these episodic disruptions in the normalcy of life in a nation. These are no mere border skirmishes, they represent tactical and powerful assaults against the Jewish state, terrorizing its people, destroying infrastructure, wounding and killing Israelis of all stripes and ethnicities and religions and creating an aura of both fear and suspicion within Israel itself, at the presence as citizens of Palestinians who empathize with Hamas.

 

A woman runs for a shelter in Ashdod, Israel, after sirens warned of rockets fired from Gaza on Monday   CNN

 

"Apartheid states aren't democracies. If the Biden administration can't stand up to an ally, who can it stand up to? How can they credibly claim to stand for human rights?", castigates Rep.Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the acknowledged most partisan figure in the U.S. Congress and openly anti-Semitic. The absurdity of qualifying Israel as an 'apartheid state' is popular among anti-Semites even while it is slanderously wrong, since at least 21 percent of Israeli citizens are Palestinian Arabs.

"For these activists, Palestinian rights and the decades-long conflict over land in the Middle East are linked to causes like police brutality and conditions for migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Party activists who fight for racial justice now post messages against the "colonization of Palestine" with the hashtag #Palestinian-LivesMatter. While the Biden administration is handling the growing conflict as a highly sensitive diplomatic challenge involving a long-standing ally, the ascendant left views it as a searing racial justice issue that is deeply intertwined with the politics of the United States", wrote the New York Times.

 

Absent any concern over the plight of Israel's 9 million citizens: Jews, Druze, Arabs, Christians, B'hai and others who combine to make up a diverse population, with Israeli citizenship; all wishing to go about their lives without the constant apprehension of terrorist attacks rising once again to inspire terror, destruction and loss of life. And nor does any among them find any comfort in knowing that Palestinians in Gaza are suffering similar dread and higher number of casualties.

The Biden administration lost no time in reversing many of the initiatives of its predecessor Trump administration, among them the restoration of US$200 million in aid to Palestinians. That funding may have made his administration more popular with the Palestinians but it only serves the personal interests of the Palestinian Authority elite, allowing them to siphon off more riches rather than invest further in the platforms needed for a legitimate state.

The Israeli military is well aware that the narrow coastal strip of Gaza is deeply burrowed underground by a vast network of tunnels called the "Metro", used by Hamas to move its members and weaponry without detection while it seeks to further infiltrate Israel. The tunnel network has become an underground city enabling Hamas to fight a "war of attrition". Hamas will never arrive at a point where its indomitable will to destroy Israel is relaxed. Its charter states clearly what its intent is, and once a hudna period of lying low while assembling new weaponry in preparation for another mass attack has passed, it once again launches rockets directly at civilian enclaves within Israel.

The Hamas formula is to use the crowded enclaves of Gaza's urban areas as launching pads to draw a response from the IDF directly to those launching pads, which are strategically located so that any response will have maximum effect in killing defenceless Gazans, puppets for Hamas's larger purpose. So apartment complexes, mosques, schools are all seen as fair game for the placement of weapons stores and rocket launchers. None of which appears to make much of an impression on those who decry Israel's 'apartheid' 'occupation' of the Palestinian Territories in an costly effort to protect itself. 

Palestinian children walk next to rubble from a house was that was hit by early morning Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza City, May 17, 2021. (Khalil Hamra / AP)