July 15, 2006

Playing Hamas’s Game - New York Times

Playing HamasÂ?s Game - New York Times

The Times editorial is likely correct, but how do Israel's leaders avoid the provocateurs' game? Easier said than done.

If anyone doubts a major conflagration (read that as war) is brewing within the Middle East, they have been on another planet. There is no other short term alternative but to eradicate as many extremists as possible.

Long term, the children produced by the extraordinarily high birth rates in the Muslim world, must be educated differently than the Wahabis would have it. That's also easier said than done.

"This perverse dynamic is again coming into play after Israel'?s wide-ranging forays into Gaza and Lebanon. Most Arabs are not blaming Hamas and Hezbollah for provoking these Israeli raids. They are blaming Israel for carrying them out.

That is not fair. But it is the way things work in the real world, and the provocateurs of Hamas and Hezbollah and their allies in Damascus and Tehran understand how to use it to their long-term advantage. Israel'?s political and military leaders need to understand it too and not let themselves be drawn into the provocateursÂ? game."

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