December 30th, 2008 by Tariq

Here’s a roundup of some articles, editorials, and op-ed’s for today:

Boston Globe: “Ultimately, the only way Israel can achieve true security, and the only way Palestinians can achieve self-determination, is to negotiate a two-state peace agreement. Brokering such a peace should be a priority for President-elect Barack Obama. But the longer the current horrors continue in Gaza, the harder it will be to untie the Israeli-Palestinian knot.”

Timothy Rieger @ The Christian Science Monitor: “If the US is to have any positive impact on finding a resolution to this conflict, we must stop lecturing Israelis and Palestinians about “ending the cycle of violence” and take stock of our own failures. We, the American people, need to end the cycle of abandoning all the innocent people of that region…the US should offer volunteer peacekeeping forces to the Gaza Strip to implement a full scale and state-of-the-art humanitarian relief operation.”

David Grossman @ Haaretz: “Israel would do well to stop, turn to Hamas’ leaders and say: Until Saturday Israel held its fire in the face of thousands of Qassams from the Gaza Strip. Now you know how harsh its response can be. So as not to add to the death and destruction we will now hold our fire unilaterally and completely for the next 48 hours.”

Jerusalem Post: “Arab elites need to offer their people an alternative to Islamist extremism. They could begin by redefining what it means to be pro-Palestinian and dissociating the Palestinian cause from anti-Israel rejectionism.”

Bret Stephens @ WSJ: “Hamas believes…that…as Israel exhausts its target list, as eventually it will, the storm will pass. Then the green flag of the movement will fly defiantly over the tallest building left standing, its prestige hugely boosted — and Israel’s commensurately diminished — throughout the Muslim world.”

Daoud Kuttab @ Washington Post: “The disproportionate and heavy-handed Israeli attacks on Gaza have been a bonanza for Hamas. The movement has renewed its standing in the Arab world, secured international favor further afield and succeeded in scuttling indirect Israeli-Syrian talks and direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. It has also greatly embarrassed Israel’s strongest Arab neighbors, Egypt and Jordan.”

Washington Post: “If the Lebanon war is any indication, the bloodshed in Gaza — which is being endlessly looped on Arab satellite channels across the region — will strengthen the Iranian camp at the expense of the secular Sunni forces.”

Finally, Yossi Klein Haveli of The New Republic, gives us a sustained look at “Why Gaza Matters,” speculating on several lines of thought, including “The Jihadist Response,” The Israeli Home Front,” Israel’s Options,” “The Iranian Bomb,” The Fate of the Two-State Solution,” “The Moderate Arab Response,” “Arab Israelis,” and “Israeli Elections.”

Posted in Hamas, Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Military, Palestine, US foreign policy |