Israel's decision to go to war in Gaza should be analyzed in order to understand the real reasoning behind it and to examine what results following the war were promised to the Israeli public. The Israeli leadership stated at the beginning of the war that it was acting to protect its citizens from the Kassams and Grad missiles launched by Hamas and other factions on the cities in the Gaza periphery.
Preparations to convince the public that this war was important and would bring a long period of calm along the Gaza-Israel border included comparing Hamas with Hizbullah and promising to make the 'south' as silent as the 'north'. This enabled a strong wave of patriotism to wash over Israelis who overwhelmingly supported this war.
Besides claiming that it wanted to protect its citizens, Israel gave no clear, achievable goals. I believe that this was a tactic designed to brace for a possible failure of the operation and a way in which to sell a victory easily to the Israeli people. The only goal that the Israeli leadership mentioned in the beginning was to destroy Hamas. It then changed to stopping the missiles. After that, it changed to weakening Hamas, and then it changed again to achieving a cease-fire.
Meanwhile, the results of the war on Hamas in Gaza are the deaths of more than 1300 Palestinians, including 650 innocents among them 220 children, and a new Palestinian generation that will likely grow up believing in the use of force and adopting agendas similar to Hamas's to avenge the deaths of their fathers and mothers. One other result is the empowerment of Hamas, not only in Gaza but in the whole Arab world and even in western communities and the international condemnation of Israel's actions.
Israel says that the launching of missiles on its communities is unbearable. The question is whether the Israeli leadership examined why people in Gaza are supporting Hamas and its attacks on Israel; people in Gaza have been under siege since the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections. These people lost faith in the choice of peace with Israel because they already lost everything they had; their families, their freedom, and even access to basic needs such as food and gas.
This war was a mistake from the beginning and continues to be mistake today. The Israeli government must start a diplomatic process to change the situation in Gaza, the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza, and the Israeli people in the south.
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