Prior to the Internet, newspaper staffs used to employ a junior reporter to write, update, and maintain a file of obituaries (now they just log onto Wikipedia and write them as needed).  Obituaries could be written well in advance and pulled from the file to be printed as needed.  The Israeli/Hamas conflict is one that could have been written well in advance with only the need to plug in the number of casualties to make the story fresh.  There is nothing new about the December 2008 attacks.  In fact, You Tube has a news video from 9 months ago that could very easily be today's news video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMAWPy9dMQM).


Imprisoned, humiliated and poorly treated, they acted out of desperation. Their attacks upon their oppressors were designed less to kill them than to simply bring media and world attention upon their plight. They had to change the dynamics of their situation or they'd face ten more years of the same.  This is not a description of Hamas' recent rocket attacks but an account of the 1971 prison riot at the Attica Correctional Facility in western New York state.

The reality of the current hot conflict is that it demonstrates a complete lack of ideas on the part of both sides. The Hamas rocket attacks of the previous days was clearly an attempt to provoke a military response from Israel.  From Hamas' perspective they had run out of alternatives. It was clear that the truce was not going to mean Israel would open the crossing to allow sufficient supplies for normal life.  If Hamas waited 6 more months the only people to suffer would be the Gaza residents and the only government likely to topple would be their own.  Therefore, their objectives were simply to provoke a military response and maintain close contact with the civilian population of Gaza in order to produce enough civilian casualties for world condemnation and a possible reaction.

Israel too had run out of alternatives.  Just as Saddam Hussein was able to maintain power following the first Gulf war despite blockades, propaganda, intimidation and air strikes, so too had Hamas resisted collapse.  For Israel the 6 month truce simply meant time for Hamas to consolidate and improve its military capabilities.  In launching the attack Israel was well aware of the fact that civilian casualties would be both extensive and well reported. Regardless of how precise their weaponry might be it is impossible to distinguish between a military target and civilian when they are standing right next to each other.  The fact that Israel didn't care says more about their own frustration than about their fear from the world's media.  The Palestinian rocket attacks were hardly more than an irritant.  Israeli civil defense learned a great deal from the 2006 Lebanon War when thousands of similar rockets caused extensive death and destruction.  Coupled with sophisticated early warning systems, secure barriers and extensive protection for their civilian population, the rocket attacks produced only two death - both Palestinian children hit by a misfired rocket. Israel responded to these attacks because, like Hamas, it had run out of alternatives.  Opening the border crossings would only solidify Hamas' hold over the region and a dragged out humanitarian crisis is more destructive to their public relations than an instantaneous and deadly one.

Thanks to peace talks that neither side seems very warm to trying, the alternatives to violence are nil.  Israelis have a saying that peace talks will begin when the Palestinian leadership chooses to love its own people more than it hates Israel.  The Palestinians have a saying that  when the cost to Israel of holding the Palestinians prisoner is greater than the cost of their being free peace talks will begin.  It is quite obvious that for both sides this time is not even close.  Therefore, this story can be held in reserve to be brought out each time open war breaks out.