re: #31 Stanley Sea

The retort to that would be that Liberman and other right wingers will fall back on the fact that the Gaza disengagement - carried out by none other than Sharon (whose right wing cred is pretty established) was a failure. It did not improve Israel’s security, as Lieberman would say because they’re now dealing with nearly incessant attacks from Gaza, and that the IDF can’t go and hunt down Hamas because they simply aren’t on the ground to send Hamas packing.

The counter to that was - and is - that the occupation of Gaza, where Israelis were severely outnumbered, was untenable, and lacking a partner in peace, the disengagement was the next best thing to contain and limit the threat posed by the terrorists. It was the justification Sharon used in disengagement, and it still holds true. The IDF was being stretched by maintaining a security force in Gaza, and now Lieberman counters that the Israeli military is now being stretched by maintaining a security force inside Israel’s own borders all while Israeli communities are under fire - and that reoccupying Gaza would thwart those mortar and rocket attacks.

I find the reoccupation unpersuasive, but Hamas may well cross a line with yet another mass casualty attack forcing Israel to engage in a Cast Lead type operation (or more).