by Dan Ehrlich

Created on: January 22, 2009

Does Israel have a right to defend itself and its way of life? Of course it does. Yet, the degree of such defense will be up for debate. However, on the other hand, onecan only guess the motivation for an elected government to launch rocket attacks against its strong neighbor knowing this will bring certain destruction on its own people. And it's just as puzzling to see how, after repeated destructive reaction to Hamas provocation, which all civilized people would consider insane, the people of Gaza still back their government.

The one inescapable conclusion is that the people of Gaza don't want peace with Israel. They want to get rid of Israel. If not in this lifetime, then in the next one or the next after that. This blending of fate and destiny no matter how long it takes is something the western nations have trouble understanding. And this is the reason there is no regional comprehensive peace agreement. The Arabs don't want a non Islamic, non Arabic country on what they consider their turf. Or putting it another way, they Arabs don't want a Jewish state in their midst. And they are willing to wait until hell freezes over to get rid of it.

To this end, the nations surrounding Israel had promised the Palestinians long-ago that hey would destroy Israel and once again make a pax Arabia out of the region. This hasn't happened. And, since the Arabs have had disastrous wars with Israel, they decided to use the Palestinians as their proxies in a continuing underground war. They would deny them citizenship in other Arab nations and keep them penned up in hell holes such as Gaza, a growing army in-waiting.

After Israel won Gaza in the 1967 War, it was the one piece of Land Egypt didn't want returned. After all, Egypt had enough poverty stricken people of its own. The fact is, no one wants Gaza. And the residents see it mainly as a staging area for their eventual triumphant return to what is now Israel.

But, events mandate changes. The rise of Iran has put fear in the hearts of several Arab leaders. The last non Arabic Muslim country to ride herd over the Middle East was the Turkish Ottoman Empire. They don't want anything like that again. The Arabs now see Israel as an ally in confronting Iran, a nation while Muslim is Shiite. Most Arabs are Sunnis. The Arabs, who are Semites, see Israel, also Semitic, as a lesser immediate threat than Iran.

Yet, for now, Gaza is temporarily on every one's minds.

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