The writing on the wall

Gideon Levy, much hated in Israel for his outspoken attacks on Israeli Government policies, again takes his Government to task in his latest op-ed piece in Haaretz. Hamas has now shown a willingness to put violence as part of its political agenda behind it. Not Israel. It is talking of an even more devastating attack on Gaza than Operation Cast Lead 3 years ago.

The writing is clearly on the wall. The head of the Hamas political bureau, Khaled Meshal, has ordered his group's military wing to stop terrorist attacks against Israel, saying his organization will make do with popular protest. Hamas is declaring that it supports a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, and the Palestinian Authority has expressed a willingness, in exchange for 100 prisoners, to give up its demand for a freeze on Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank as a condition for the resumption of peace talks. What more will we ask for?

On our side, too, the writing is clearly on the wall. Israel is ignoring the changes in the Palestinian positions. Most of the media is systematically obscuring the situation. Security sources are saying in response that they know nothing about the shift, or that it is only tactical. Israel is also rejecting the Palestinian Authority's negligible conditions with repeated "nos" in the finest of Israeli rejectionism.

This time, however, Israel isn't just making do with that. All of a sudden, on the third anniversary of Israel's Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip, there is a chorus of threats being heard from the military brass of another assault on Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, along with the former head of the IDF Southern Command and the southern brigade commander, are all saying there is no alternative to a Cast Lead II. The brigade commander even promised it would be more "painful" and "forceful" than the first Cast Lead. More painful than that first, shocking Operation Cast Lead, Mr. Commander?

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