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With the UN calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip an article written by Gary Brecher and first published in 2012 by NSFWCORP (now part of Pando), lessons from Gaza - suggesting that Palestinian durability may beat Israel's high-tech weaponry, remains remarkably relevant today.
What's going on in Gaza is war, but not the kind any commander from the past would understand. On paper, Israel should be winning easily, because they've got the weapons, the numbers, the organization. The weapons Hamas is firing into Israel are primitive things, unguided rocket artillery, the kind that couldn't hit the ground if it wasn't for the law of gravity. On the other side, the Israelis get the best weaponry the US can give them.
But it's not that simple. Israel may win this battle, but it's lost the war already. You see that in the confusion the IDF shows about what to do. They've tried stomping hard on Gaza. In late 2008 through early 2009, "Operation Cast Lead" sent IDF troops and planes smashing into this tiny overpopulated slum. They killed 1400 Palestinians, and it didn't do much but make everybody sick to their stomachs - including even some Israelis, once they got over their initial gloating.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday July 14 2014, @12:17PM
"Logically, in classical military terms, it's simple: you'd massacre or expel the whole population. Israel doesn't quite have the ruthlessness to do that"
A lot of important people gain a lot of power and make a lot of money by "defending Israel" and on the other side "fighting Israel". Putting them out of business on both sides isn't happening unless you've got a better business plan for both sides to gain power and make money. Can't think of one? Yeah that's where the best minds have been stuck for about 60 years now.
Its an example of a situation that on an individual basis is very unstable, but the overall group dynamic is hyper stable and isn't likely to change in the future.
Setting up an embargo on the Palestinians / cutting off all USA aid to Israel would lower the death rate (at least temporarily) but would do nothing to disrupt the stability of eternal war as their primary business model.
The only solution I can think of is removal of both players from the fight. Send all the Jews to ... I donno which is kinda a problem, new york city or skokie or someplace I donno, and kick out all the Palestinians, and then nuke the empty land from orbit to be sure. Thats the nice way to do it. The not so nice way is ecological, wait until famine arrives and wipes out both sides, or geological, wait long enough and a tidal wave will kill them all, even if it takes 1M years.
I'm not sure what would happen if you sent in another power and victimized both sides for awhile and then left. Basically a UN or USA peacekeeping mission. Embrace, extend, and extinguish the existing warfare business model by becoming the new bad guy on the block killing 100 people a day on both sides for like a decade, THEN take off and leave and hope they cooperate. Good luck. Even if you had to try this like 10 times until it worked, that's only what, like 7 million people total, and at the current death rate you'd come out ahead in the long run after only 400 years or so.
A close analogy to the peacekeeping mission would be a new religious conversion. Perhaps both sides converting to Scientology would patch things up a bit. Unfortunately this might be their best hope.
(Score: 1) by fadrian on Tuesday July 15 2014, @03:25PM
I donno which is kinda a problem, new york city or skokie or someplace I donno...
Well, there's always Palm Springs and Miami, too, for the older ones.
That is all.