Word: hizballah
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...cooperation with Israel, Abbas knows that Hamas could easily take control of the West Bank too. The longer the Israeli offensive continues, the greater the damage to all the Arab moderates the U.S. has been hoping to rally in an alliance against the likes of Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizballah...
...several days into it. But Israel is well aware that a ground assault is precisely what Hamas wants. There is little the militants can do against Israeli air power, but they believe they can bloody Israel's armored columns and, in what they hope will be a reprise of Hizballah's success in Lebanon in 2006, inflict sufficient damage on the Israeli forces to be able to claim a symbolic victory. For the Israeli public, an outcome that leaves Hamas rule intact in Gaza may be easier to swallow if Israel has not suffered the significant casualties that could result...
...what, exactly? The first rule of launching a military campaign is to know how to end it, and Israel lacks an obvious endgame in Gaza. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, having overreached in his attempt to stamp out Hizballah in Lebanon, has announced modest goals this time: he's not promising to eliminate Hamas or even to permanently halt the flow of rockets from Gaza. Both those options would require Israeli troops to occupy Gaza for a long time, with the potential risk of massive casualties. Instead, Olmert is hoping a large show of force will persuade Hamas to stop stockpiling...
Hamas knows that Israel's military intervention is unlikely to be a ground war to the finish. It will hope that, like Hizballah in Lebanon in 2006, simply surviving an Israeli onslaught will help it emerge politically victorious. Israel will hope to sufficiently bloody the movement to put it on the defensive and make its leaders prioritize their own physical survival over pressing Israel to ease the siege. And hundreds more people could die in the weeks ahead as the two sides look to win the battle of wills. The renewed confrontation is likely to strengthen the far-right forces...
...support is not quite universal. The Israeli strikes have revealed, once again, the stark differences between pro-Western Arab leaders like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and more radical Arab groups like Hizballah in Lebanon. Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah has slammed the Egyptian government for suggesting that Hamas brought the attack upon itself. In an angry televised speech Sunday, Nasrallah said Cairo was cooperating with Israel and was selling out not only Palestinians but all Arabs. "There are some who speak of Arab silence, but this is wrong," he said. "There is full Arab cooperation, especially by those who have signed...