While I have the greatest respect for both Simin and Clive, not to mention a couple of our other locals and their discourse and debate on the Gaza war, the “tugs of war” between those correspondents do not advance solutions.
When our protagonists refer us to their favourite “experts”, we find that even the experts are as divided as we local armchair warriors.
There are those of us who might think the solution is as simple as convincing the US to withdraw its support for Israel’s further pursuit of warfare against Gaza. I would guess that the withdrawal of US support would likely cause Israel to pursue the war with even more vigour, until Israel’s arsenal becomes almost depleted. Even without US support, Israel has a war chest of around $6 billion, and could replenish its arsenal using some of that.
The worst scenario would likely be that when the conventional arsenal was depleted, Israel would not likely countenance any situation which could be construed as a defeat. It is conceivable that it might then turn to non-conventional weapons — let us hope this does not eventuate.
Dennis Pennefather
