Blog

The recent resurgence and ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas is nothing new, it is not the first time and it is not the last. In the long period of about seven decades of the Palestinian Problem, Palestinians and Israelis are accustomed to such crises. So is the international community, which is “helpless” and simply hypocritically consumed in statements of concern, concern and calls for a return to “calm”. As if there is calm in Palestine, when the drums of war are silent, with so much Israeli settlement activity underway…
As cynical as this comment may read, the stakes of this crisis are more about training those involved in new war tactics and detecting the capabilities and adaptability of the other than any attempt to change the strategic data on the ground, much more the pursuit of peace.
Israel, which is constantly and silently expanding its settlements in peacetime, feels insecure about Hamas's ever-improving missile capability and is trying to limit it mainly through intelligence and selected surgical strikes on Hamas' infrastructure. The prospect of a ground intervention in Gaza seems foolish and pointless, as it will bring nothing to Israel. Therefore, Tel Aviv is testing and improving its air defense system against Hamas missiles with this crisis.
Hamas fighters, despite being technologically and militarily incomparably disadvantaged compared to Israel, persist in their tactic of cultivating insecurity among Israeli citizens through its missile capability. And it is true that they succeed in doing so and at the same time improve their practice in the use of its artillery. In the past, Palestinian rockets fell where they were launched. Today, they hit, even with inaccuracy, all the cities of Israel. The improvement of Hamas's missile and general operational capabilities is based on the occasional crises with Israel.
Both sides have their losses. Israel feels insecure. But the cost for Hamas and the Palestinians is the casualties, which are usually ten times the Israelis', a result of Hamas' military technological cachexia. Strategically and psychologically, the mosaic "eye for an eye" determines the stance of those involved in the Palestinian crisis without any prospect of changing their stance in the short term, with the otherwise peace-making West simply observing from a distance...