Benjamin Netanyahu was on CNN today saying "We'll have to bring down the Hamas regime."And how's that going, Ben?
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.
While it is not apparent how this violent confrontation will end, it is abundantly clear that the Islamic Hamas movement has been brought back from near political defeat while moderate Arab leaders have been forced to back away from their support for any reconciliation with Israel.
When I first read that the aim of the Israeli government was to "destroy Hamas", the question that popped into my mind was "like you destroyed Hezbollah?" There really seems to be no such thing as learning from mistakes among the conservatives of either Israel or the U.S.
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