Israel Won the War in Gaza

Four months of calm on the Gaza front, with almost no rockets being fired at Israel, are the result of a strategic decision by the leadership of Hamas, reports Ethan Bronner.

“Armed resistance is still important and legitimate, but we have a new emphasis
on cultural resistance,” noted Ayman Taha, a Hamas leader and former fighter.
“The current situation required a stoppage of rockets. After the war, the
fighters needed a break and the people needed a break.”

Instead of shooting, Bronner reports, Hamas is trying its hand at a different sort of struggle against Israel, cultural:

“We are not terrorists but resistance fighters, and we want to explain our
reality to the outside world,” Osama Alisawi, the minister of culture, said
during a break from the two-day conference. “We want the writers and
intellectuals of the world to come and see how people are suffering on a daily
basis.”

This should be fine with Israel. If the Palestinians ever truly renounce force and turn to, say, Ghandian peaceful resistance, Israel will indeed cave in, and make room for an independant Palestinian state. Sure, there will be extreme quibles about the final inches (Jerusalem, descendants of refugees), but since a majority of Israelis long ago accepted that partition of this tiny land with the Palestinians is the way to go, if only the Palestinains think the same - I don't see the danger.

Contrary to what the Guardianistas of the world fervently believe, Israel has no joy from Palestinian suffering, and would vastly prefer they lived normal lives alongside us while allowing us to live normal lives alongside them.

In the meantime, if what is happening in Gaza is merely a tactical lull, not a strategic decision, well, the Iron Dome system is apparently rapidly approaching deployment; every day and week that pass without fire at Sderot and its region is a day or week less until we can stop the rockets when they return.