Israeli Consensus on the War

Here is a very good article from the New York Times website, which explains why so many Israelis support the current war in Gaza (Operation Cast Lead). Arab pundits claim that Israel's war on Gaza is making Hamas and its armed resistance more popular, but it is Hamas' rise to power and its rockets falling on civilian targets which gave Israel's leaders the consensus to go on with the attack. It made the hawks more popular. It hardened Israel's heart.

From the article:

Boaz Gaon, a playwright and peace activist, said he found it deeply depressing how the Israeli public had embraced the military’s arguments in explaining the deaths of civilians. But he was livid at Hamas, both for what it had done to its own people and civilians in the south, and for its impact on the Israeli left.

"Hamas has pushed Israeli thinking back 30 years,” he said. “It has killed the peace camp.”

Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak was known as a dove. He is now managing the IDF and its operations in Gaza. I'm not sure if he was for or against the ground invasion but I really wish that they hadn't send in ground forces.

Here is a video from AlJazeera English, which explains why I and many Israelis don't want to send in ground forces. I believe it will expose the IDF to too much danger.