The blood of Gaza again

Once again we are witnessing the scene of Israeli aggression on Arab soil, this time on the stricken Gaza Strip. New victims are falling dead, including women and children, for the Israeli weapon does not differentiate; it targets everyone regardless. The Israeli Prime Minister, who is thirsty for blood and is seeking to achieve any military glory at the expense of the Arabs (like his predecessors in office), suffers from a weak point. All Israel’s former Prime Ministers who have “shone” are remembered for their impressive military legacy, and Netanyahu does not have anything of note in this regard. He failed to convince the world to strike Iran under the pretext of thwarting its nuclear program, and in fact he even failed to convince his own intelligence service (Mossad), his Defense Minister Ehud Barack, as well as public opinion in Israel. Therefore he then thought he could get what he wanted with a forceful and violent strike on Gaza. In addition to this, we must also consider that Hamas has now liberated itself from the dominance and restrictions of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus. Al-Assad effectively used to govern Hamas and prevented it from realizing its dreams of confronting Israel, and he even used to “discipline” its leaders on occasions if they exceeded the political and military red lines set out for them from Damascus. Now Hamas is acting of its own volition after being liberated from the age-old Syrian influence, and having become free from the chokehold of the Syrian intelligence services. Furthermore, Benjamin Netanyahu is fully aware that Barack Obama’s re-election as US President is a real source of concern, for it lessens his chances of a strike against Iran. Had Netanyahu's Republican friend Mitt Romney succeeded in reaching the White House, the situation would be considerably different. All these points helped the Israeli Prime Minister to quickly reach his decision to strike Gaza, in order to disrupt any real chance of Palestine being voted in as a UN member state. Netanyahu intends to persuade the public, especially in the West, that Palestinian terrorism is on the rise in Gaza as well as in regions under the control of the Palestinian Authority. This is a campaign of misinformation intending to make it difficult, if not impossible, to properly vote for Palestine as a UN member state. Under the Netanyahu government, there will be no peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel, something Israel has made abundantly clear. Instead, there are "factions" within the ruling party in Israel that now overtly demand the deportation of Gaza's residents to resettle in Sinai (in the same manner that they previously demanded the deportation of West Bank residents to settle in Jordan). This language seems to be gaining acceptance now and is being openly spoken in public. As a result, the current Israeli military operations (which Netanyahu is threatening to expand by mobilizing 30,000 reserve troops) are an opportunity to secure political gains for the ruling party before the upcoming elections, according to recent reports. The Israeli aggression is also intended to test the new Egyptian government, to see what extent it is inclined towards Gaza and its rulers, and to sense the degree of its "commitment" to the peace agreements signed with Israel. The Egyptian intelligence apparatus has so far failed to reveal those "responsible" for the ongoing criminal incidents in Sinai. Is it Gaza, Hamas and the extremists there? Or is the Israeli Mossad playing a dubious role in this regard? The Israeli government’s latest aggression against Gaza will not be the last crime or massacre committed by a rogue state that persists in violating international laws. Israel is like a wild dog whose owner says: Excuse the dog if it bites you, it is defending itself! Netanyahu has been shaken by the Arab Spring and now fears its consequences. He is facing unexpected scenarios as freedom in the Arab world continues to rise. The Arab people will not accept anything less than freedom and dignity for the states in which they live, and for the states that have been seized from them. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.