Email comment to Ed Luttwak on his article in Wall Street Journal on 1-9-09

Militarily, in the first few days, the combined operation of SHABAK and Air Force destroyed the Hamas command and control structure and thus“won” the war, whether the media, the pundits, the commentators like it or not. Sill the question - what now? - is as valid as ever. Israel does not want to be responsible for more than one million Palestinians in Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority under Abu Maazen is weak and useless. It seems therefore that both Israel and Hamas want Hamas to remain in power and to reach an agreement about that.

Israel can deal with Hamas through Egypt or directly. The role of Egypt is unclear. The border length between the Strip and Egypt is only few miles; the Egyptian security apparatus is quite efficient. Any“smuggling” of arms is controlled by Egypt. There must have been a kind of understanding about that with Hamas. From time to time the rulers of Egypt are trying to reach an accommodation with the Muslim Brothers. Contrary to the popular opinion Sadat was killed not because of peace with Israel, but because he was more tolerant with the Muslim Brothers than Naser.

As to the “world” and Israel one can write many books about it. Already in 1968, Maurice Blanchot, who was rather antisemitic before the war, left the organizing body of student actions because of the attitude of the left to Israel...