what next?

It's pretty obvious to all that the Israeli cease fire is not even viable as a temporary solution. To leave the battlefield without disarming the enemy is foolhardy and will be costly to the cause of Israeli security. There are still plenty of rockets in Gaza if all the numbers bandied about -even discounted for massive exaggeration- by the various combatants and sympathizers are realistic.

The situation is clouded by the strange way in which this cease fire has been negotiated. Hamas has made its demands but Israel has not dealt with Hamas but only with Egypt who doesn't have much sway with Hamas either. So who knows what Israel has really agreed to with Egypt? Or, for that matter, what Hamas has agreed to. They stopped firing rockets so Israel stopped air raids. Nothing has changed.

Is it really credible that Israel would stop its blockade? No more credible than that Israel is planning suicide.

Years ago, I supported the pullout from Gaza believing, in my naivete, that once Gaza was a foreign country, it would no longer be an Israeli problem. I was too trusting.

The fact is that the inhabitants of Gaza and their leaders are hard core liars and thieves and I wouldn't trust any one of them to tell me the correct time of day. So where do we go from here?  It wasn't good when Gaza was part of  Israel and it's even worse now that it isn't. There are between one-and-a-half and two million savages living there who are answerable to no one and understand only overwhelming force.

We can't get rid of them, but we must bring them to heel. A ground invasion would have been the best solution.

A word about Israel's propaganda war. Take a look at how the Arabs handle any question that is asked of them. Did they fire rockets? It's Israel's fault. Did they try to infiltrate Israel? It's Israel's fault. Did they bomb the bus in Tel Aviv? It's Israel's fault. They stay on message and don't really say very much.

On the other hand, the Israelis are the biggest blabbermouths with their high minded, moralistic boastful blather. We do surgical strikes! We can pinpoint an ant at 30 miles! We have the Iron Dome! We protect civilian lives! We are the greatest! We wouldn't deliberately hurt an arab civilian! We are so good we even shoot ourselves so as not to hurt our enemies!

They are incapable of characterizing their conflict except in terms of they being the smartest, the best, the most humane, etc. What they should say is that all their enemies are bloodthirsty savages; men women and children, that they do their best to avoid mass killings of civilians, but, this is war and in war people get hurt.

Too bad.