Price of Hamas' 'Phychological Victory' Not Worth Paying (Folha, Brazil)
"I'm not sure that the majority of Israelis compare their
lives in Israel with what it would be like if they moved to one of the major
capitols cited. Rather, my sense after many trips to the region is that there
is a growing national pride for having to live as they do under fire. ... Palestinians
are also besieged and paying a price - not just psychologically but with their lives.
All so Israel can soothe the nerves of its own people."
One
of the rockets Hamas fired at Israel did more damage than the other 2,158
launched between June 8 to June 22 combined.
That
one hit a house in the town of Yehud, a little over two
miles from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, which led
the North American Federal Aviation Administration to
cancel all flights to Israel, a move followed by a good portion of European carriers.
The
main damage wasn't financial, even if the Israeli tourism industry feels the
blow, since it's the height of summer in the northern hemisphere, and by
extension, tourist season.
The
suspension of flights struck at the heart of Israeli morale, based on the testimony of columnist AharonLapidot of Israel Hayom (Israel Today), currently the largest circulation newspaper in the
country - ultraconservative and ultranationalist.
Lapidot wrote that the North American agency's
decision "is a dramatic move, which has already swept up almost all the
other foreign airlines and increased the sense of siege and isolation among
many Israelis."
Another
Jewish analyst goes in somewhat the same direction,
but refers to Hamas rockets in general, and not just those that led to the
suspension of flights (initially for 24 hours, but extended for another 24).
That
would be Ariel Ilan Roth, Executive Director of the Israel
Institute, a research center based in the United States that monitors
Israel.
For
Roth, the strategic objective for Hamas is to shake Israelis' sense of
normalcy: "It is only possible for Israel to exist as a flourishing and
prosperous democracy under the garrisoned conditions of persistent conflict
when its citizens are able to maintain the illusion that their lives are more
or less similar to what they would aspire to have in London, Paris, or New
York."
I'm
not sure that the majority of Israelis compare their lives in Israel with what
it would be like if they moved to one of the major capitols cited. Rather, my sense
after many trips to the region is that there is a growing national pride for
having to live as they do under fire.
Posted
By Worldmeets.US
I
remember once having entered a chat room for Jews before traveling to cover an
election there, and stating that I'd like to get in touch with ordinary people
instead of talking to the usual suspects (politicians, officials, academics,
etc.). The first response I received: "In Israel there are no ordinary
people."
Let's
set aside the side note and return to Ilan Roth, who
thinks that if his premise is correct, "Hamas has already won." It
won because, "it has shattered the necessary illusion for Israelis that a
political stalemate with the Palestinians is cost-free for Israel." Even
more, "It has shown Israelis that, even if the Palestinians cannot kill
them, they can extract a heavy psychological price."
The
problem with his reasoning is that the Palestinians are also besieged and
paying a price - not just psychologically but with their lives. All so Israel
can soothe the nerves of its own people.
Clovis Rossi is a special
correspondent and member of the Folha
editorial board, is a winner of the Maria Moors Cabot award (USA) and
is a member of the Foundation for a New Ibero-American
Journalism. His column appears on Thursdays and Sundays on page 2 and on
Saturdays in the World Notebook section. He is the author, among other works,
of Special Envoy: 25 Years Around the World and What is Journalism?
