Brooks' analysis is an interesting take on the Middle East Mess (MEM). Israel obviously has the military might compared to Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorists. Reading the comments about Brooks' column, I get the impression that most commenters see this struggle as mainly Israel's 'fault' because they 'oppress' the Palestinians and steal 'their' land with continued expansion of settlements. I fail to see why Israel should give back unilaterally the land they captured from their attackers in 1967, attackers and enemies who proclaim that Israel has no right to exist.
There is much blame to be cast in this MEM, of course, but Israel does not claim that Islamic nations have no right to exist. Israel does not practice suicide/homicide bombing. Israel does not fire rockets indiscriminately into civilian populations. Israel does not hide its fighters among the civilian population.
Israel has fashioned, with America's help, a modern democracy and a vibrant economy. They receive strong support from Jews around the world who still and should remember the Holocaust.
Palestinians, it seems, with whatever largess comes to them from Islamic nations fashion terrorists, a failed economy and a failed political system. Where is the creative energy for a better life for themselves? Blaming Israel exclusively for their woes is wrongheaded. But their religion and their hatred blinds them and has taken them captive to vengeance and terror.
"This new game isn’t a war of attrition. It’s a struggle for confidence, a series of psychological exchanges designed to shift the balance of morale. The material destroyed in an episode can be replaced, but the psychological effects are more lasting. What is really important is how each episode ends, because the ending defines the meaning — who mastered events and who was mastered by them."
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