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 | Daily News Brief July 22, 2014 |
Top of the Agenda
Israel-Hamas Conflict Continues Despite International Pressure
As
the conflict between Israel and Hamas entered its third week, fighting
continued unabated despite mounting international pressure for the two
sides to arrive at a cease-fire (Reuters). UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon is expected to arrive in Jerusalem on Tuesday to meet with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while U.S. secretary of state John Kerry is set to hold meetings in Egypt (Haaretz). Palestinian fatalities have surpassed six hundred (WSJ),
according to health officials; Israel reported one of its soldiers
missing in action, as its forces continue to target tunnels that could be used in an infiltration (NYT).
Analysis
"Such
tactical achievements should not be minimized. But they do not equal a
strategic victory. War, as Clausewitz famously taught, is the
continuation of politics by other means. Wars are fought to realign
politics in a way that benefits the victor and is detrimental to the
loser. But the Israelis have lost sight of this distinction," writes Ariel Ilan Roth in Foreign Affairs.
"For
many Gazans, and not just Hamas supporters, it's worth risking more
bombardment and now the ground incursion, for a chance to change that
unacceptable status quo. A cease-fire that fails to resolve the salary
crisis and open Gaza's border with Egypt will not last. It is unsustainable for Gaza to remain cut off from the world and administered by employees working without pay," writes the International Crisis Group's Nathan Thrall in the New York Times.
"Depending
on whom one asks, Egypt's failure so far to mediate a cease-fire is
either a function of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's perfidy
or incompetence, or Egypt's diminished status among Muslim countries.
But there's another explanation: The Egyptians seem to believe that a continuation of the fighting—for now—best serves their interests," writes CFR's Steven Cook in Foreign Policy.
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