Soccer Dad

Lynch-ing israel

At Foreign Policy Marc Lynch asks, How badly did Gaza poison the well? (via memeorandum) Needless to say, Lynch opposed Israel's effort to defend its citizens. But here's one of his conclusions:

There's no question that Gaza has weakened the hand of moderates and strengthened more extremist voices across the political spectrum.

No question? This is a mantra, supported by absolutely no evidence. It's just an outgrowth of the "there's no military solution to terrorism" faith.

Noah Pollak wrote in his Gaza post-mortem:

The political fallout among the Palestinians remains to be measured, but there is some anecdotal evidence that people in Gaza aren't feeling terribly proud of the resistance as they wade through the rubble.

He also presents two reports that buttress his view.

Backspin links to a Der Spiegel story where it wasn't difficult for the the reporter to find Palesitnians who were critical of Hamas in Gaza.

So there is a question as to whether Hamas and other extremists were helped by Israel's war against Hamas. Remember Hamas that had boasted of its power, was powerless against Israel. Apparently even Hamas is now conceding its impotence.

Martin Peretz recently observed that in the Fatah controlled areas, the Palestinians have been successfully building a civil society. That wasn't possible before the destruction of Arafat's suicide factory by Israel's Operation Defensive Shield.

There won't be peace in the Middle East as long as terrorist groups are tolerated and accommodated. So Lynch rejects an action that has worked to reduce terror and instead advocates a policy that would strengthen Hamas.

If the Gaza crisis exposes the myths and vain hopes of the peace processors, it could push towards new approaches with a better chance of actually tackling the issues on the ground. That's going to have to involve dealing with Hamas at some point, as most reasonable people increasingly recognize.

There's nothing reasonable about his position. Like so much analysis of the Middle East, Lynch falls back on a few platitudes and ignores any evidence to the contrary.

Crossposted on Yourish