Well, an op-ed in today’s Washington Post puts it quite well. “There are no shortcuts to peace that bypass security.”

That’s what Israel has been saying for the longest time, and it’s the key ingredient of any future agreement.  Since the current operations were caused a continued erosion of Israeli security by Hamas, it only follows that Israel’s confidence in a halt to rockets will be necessary to end the operation.

And a responsible Palestinian security service, like that suggested in the article, is certainly an important ingredient.

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Photo: Reuters

Iran has said it might be willing to reevaluate its relationship with Israel and the West under certain conditions.  If pro-Hamas protestors are running over pictures of present (and future) world leaders with their cars, it makes us wonder what exactly those conditions are.

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In today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Bret Stephens argues that Hamas supports the “no state solution.”  While it’s pretty obvious that Hamas rejects the existence of the State of Israel, Stephens also points out that it rejects the idea of a future Palestinian state, hoping instead for a larger Islamic caliphate throughout the Middle East.

You can check out the references to Hamas’s charter on our previous post.

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Though Hamas has been in the news in recent weeks, Iran’s influence in Gaza has remained out of the public eye.  A news piece in today’s New York Times notes how Iran has been working behind the scenes to use the present conflict for its own ends, essentially by actively presenting itself as the champion of radicalism and of Hamas.

There is always a great deal of speculation as to what Iran actually wants from this conflict (one thing is nearly certain, peace is not one of them).  Some further analysis from Pajamas Media delves a bit deeper into some of the strategic thinking going on in the region.

And finally, some history on the subject, this from Gulf News, which traces the evolution of Iran’s monetary and military support for Hamas.

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We’ve received a lot of mail recently about arguments of proportionality in warfare. Today we found an interesting piece in The New Republic by Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus at the Insitute for Advanced Study at Princeton University (who’s been doing this type of political philosophy for a while), on this very discussion.  He also notes the questions that should guide our discussion of proportionality, as well as some unintended outcomes of that discussion.
An excerpt:

Let’s talk about proportionality–or, more important, about its negative form. “Disproportionate” is the favorite critical term in current discussions of the morality of war. But most of the people who use it don’t know what it means in international law or in just war theory.

For more, see here.

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U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement regarding Israel’s operations in Gaza:

“For months – even before it officially violated the so-called cease-fire – the terrorist organization Hamas has been relentlessly firing missiles into Israel from Gaza, spreading terror, inflicting damage, and killing innocent civilians. No country would be expected to sit on its hands and simply allow its citizens to endure these kinds of vicious attacks without retaliating against the responsible party. I strongly support Israel’s right to self-defense and its decision to go after Hamas in response to the unyielding and increasingly far-reaching missile attacks. We all want peace in Gaza and hope that it will come very soon, but peace cannot be achieved so long as Hamas continues missile attacks. If a just and lasting cease-fire is to occur, it is incumbent upon Hamas to immediately and permanently halt all attacks against the Israeli people. As for the humanitarian situation in Gaza, I believe the United States and other countries can and should play a role in helping civilians in Gaza meet their basic needs through international assistance – without interference from Hamas – and I believe Israel has taken the right action with temporarily halts in military operations and creation of a humanitarian corridor to allow civilian aid into Gaza.”

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The UN Security Council has been discussing Gaza in recent days in an attempt to find a means of addressing the situation through diplomatic channels. Below is a statement from the Israeli Ambassador, Gabriela Shalev, to the Security Council, given on Tuesday, 06 January. continue reading…

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NYC Mayor Bloomberg visited Israel this past Sunday and had this to say to CNN:

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According to Thomas Friedman’s analysis in today’s New York Times, Hamas doesn’t think so–and that’s one of the principle elements in the current conflict.  As it happens, Friedman notes, Gaza is at the center of the three existential questions that plague the region today–only one of which involves Israel.

You’ll just have to read the article for the rest of the questions, though.

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Tony Blair, the envoy of the Quartet to the Middle East, talks with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour about how to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza.

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