Gas deal, coming polls behind military operations in Gaza?
The Times of India
08 Gennaio 2009
Even as the massive aerial attack by Israel on Gaza entered its fourth day, and the number of deaths mounted to nearly 400, the question
troubling people across the world is: what does Israel hope to gain out of this? Officially, the Israeli defense minister has said that it will be a fight to the finish, implying that they want to physically finish off Hamas, the ruling organization in Gaza.
But, as the 2006 invasion of south Lebanon showed, the chances of this happening are remote. In Lebanon, the objective was to finish off Hezbollah. What happened was quite the reverse — Hezbollah emerged wounded but a hero in the eyes of the Arab people, strengthening its position in Lebanon. So what is the endgame in Gaza?
Two factors that are not being talked about much, but have figured prominently in the Israeli calculus are: natural gas and the upcoming elections to the Israeli Knesset, their parliament.
Gaza is a small strip of land …
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