How ceasefire hopes foundered on rock of Israeli public opinion

[ECH1969]

IT ALL looked so promising in Jerusalem late on Sunday night. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, met Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister. Then, around midnight, her press secretary issued a statement announcing that Israel had agreed to halt its airstrikes for 48 hours while it investigated the bombing earlier in the day of the Lebanese village of Qana, in which 37 children were killed.

After three weeks of relentless Israeli attacks, the announcement appeared to be the first sign of Israel’s readiness to bow to the international clamour for an end to the bloodshed. “Olmert folded” proclaimed the headline in the mass- circulation newspaper Yediot Ahronoth. Alex Fishman, a military analyst, wrote: “Hezbollah continues to fire, stands on its feet, and Israel is alarmed and folds in the face of pressure.”

The Government was attacked from left and right. Yuval Steinitz, a Likud MP, said that the concession would make Israel look weak and be perceived internationally as an admission of Israeli guilt for the civilian deaths. Dr Rice’s optimism proved short-lived. Within an hour of her departure, Amir Peretz, the Defence Minister, went before the Israeli parliament. Far from talking peace, he vowed to intensify the war.

Mr Olmert’s defiance is rooted in rock-solid domestic support. Polls show 80-95 per cent support for continued strikes, with no evidence that the Qana killings or last week’s bombing of a UN observer post caused a flicker of the needle. Overwhelmingly Israelis have internalised their Government’s portrayal of the conflict as an existential one: Hezbollah as the proxy of Iran’s mullahs, determined to exterminate the Jewish people.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-2293781,00.html

[Hoping4Change]

1. .

[Ron Green]

2. Losing face

They're like a bunch of goddamned teenagers, more afraid than anything else of "looking weak." Just as this false pride keeps a criminal from changing, so will the same bullshit conceit keep a people from seeking peace.

[ECH1969]

3. As long as the Israeli public supports the war

it will continue.

[acmavm]

4. Then this American says Israel can frigging be big boys and girls

and go it alone in every way, shape, or form there is.

No more American taxpayer money; no more American bombs, planes, bullets, or armaments whatsoever; and no more support from the American government for any/all of the crap policies that the Israelis constantly enact all in the name of 'security'.