Many people are looking at this and saying that it's an attempt by Netanyahu and the right wing coalition to look tough before the election. This isn't the case and I'll tell you why. 75,000 troops are prepping to go in to Gaza to rout out the threat of rockets, and we can guarantee that there will be less than 75,000 going home. Dead soldiers looks bad for ANY Israeli politician and as a result poll numbers will suffer. The Labor/Kadima/Yesh Atid coalition that is forming will gain from this conflict, not Likud/Yisrael Beiteinu.
Well, it all depends. I don't believe Bibi expected it to escalate to this level this quickly.
EDIT: In regard to Egyptian rhetoric: Nothing Egypt says really matters. History tells us that the affinity between the Egyptians and the Palestinians is far weaker than anything that Morsi has said lately. I don't expect anything they say to amount to a legitimate factor in this conflict.
I don't expect anything either. But as theoretical threats go, it's a big one. Egypts in a sad state, but she's bloody big, and that's something to be dealth with if it goes pear shaped.
I'm still not sure how this makes Bibi look bad. Surely the Israeli people WANT a military response to these rockets, and he's giving them just that. And frankly, no country around Israel would be able to commit a war against them. Egypt's military is dealing with domestic matters and isn't organized for a war, Lebanon wouldn't want to get involved period, i think, and Syria is in disarray. All out war would involve a massive Israeli victory.
I may be a little biased, as I view Bibi Netanyahu a one of the sorriest excuses for a human being involved i running a democracy. He is a complete and utter bastard.
All out war would end up with an Israeli victory. But at what price? And as for what makes Bibi look bad, the escalation that happened after the Israeli response would probably not have happened, people are dead in Israel as a result.
The Arab world is extremely weak now. They were stronger when they fought with Israel before and they lost. Hell even with the backing of the U.S. they failed fighting Iran (when the Iranian military was at its weakest).
I would guess the most powerful Middle Eastern military states now are Turkey, Iran, and Israel. Note that none of these are Arab.
No doubt about that. But there are an awful lot of them there.
Remember that Israel has a lot to lose politically from pissing off America. Netanyahu and Obama already have a shaky relationship and any bumps will not bode well because Obama is a second term president with less to lose.
He more or less tried to get Romney elected, that sort of thing is not very clever when you're running an American ally. He thinks he's a lot more clever than he actually is, and this brings it out.
I'm just tired of pseudo activists posting shit on Facebook about "save the Palestinian people" and by that calling out Israel as this monster state oppressing the poor palestines... They seem to completely forget there's aggression from both sides, and that palestines should be saved as much from Hamas as from Israel, if not more.
This is true.
The fact of the matter is that there are no sides in the Middle East that's not filled with unspeakably stupid, egotistic and arrogant bastards.
And there are no sides where you can't find unspeakable kindness and goodness.
That being said; Israel is the occupying power, and is, as such, heavily responsible for what results from said occupation. So does the terrorists, though.
