Much of the Israeli psych is due to the shoah. They consider it the greatest tragedy to befall a people, ever. About half the Jewish population in the world was killed, a fate unequaled. Aside from the appropriateness of this conclusion, it is one deeply embedded in Jewish Israelis. What, you might ask, does this have to do with WP? I have relatives in both the IDF and IAF and there is an attitude prevalent that anything we do to the Palestinians is not anywhere near as bad as was done to us. Consequently, bombing the civilian apartment blocks in South Beirut, far from any military action, was acceptable. Killing only 1500 Palestinians in Gaza is a drop in the bucket compared with what was done to us.
Consequently, whatever brutality we visit upon the Palestinians is acceptably minor in comparison. I have a nephew who is a Golani captain and his orders in Gaza City during Cast Lead was under NO CIRCUMSTANCES let one of his men be captured, either dead or alive. Anything else is okay. He ordered tank fire on apartments if he saw any movement in windows with no consideration if that movement was civilian. His men would take over housing to place snipers on the top floor and keep the civilians inside to deter counter fire from Hamas. Its ironic that it was felt that Hamas would be reluctant to fire on civilian buildings, the IDF was not so deterred. Vaclav Linek - my current thinking is that the IDF launched another Cast Lead, Egypt would stay out of any direct action but the flow of weapons through the tunnels would increase. I suspect some Egyptian soldiers would defect and bring themselves and equipment to the fight. Another Cast Lead will cause Egypt to annul the treaty with Israel. JD Ledell
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