can everyone have their lives back now? Arms? Legs? Eyes?

Or, more to the point, A Day of the Death of many Gazans, of course. Study find 86% of deaths as of 1/14 were civilians; much different number from Israeli or even UN estimates. But they do give names and ages for this day. Hamas fighter deaths were tabulated at 137 as of that date!

The comments to Col. Lang are mostly very analytical and informative. Worth reading.

It seems to me that, as with Israel's last invasion of Lebanon, the stated objectives are not met, but the results are the killing and terrorizing of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure (housing, crops and fields for growing things, schools, hospitals, power and water provisioning). In the Lebanese case, weakening of Hizbullah did not occur; quite the opposite. Some posit that Hamas now will be regarded by Palenstinians both within Gaza and in the West Bank bantustans as more strongly standing for their rights than the Palestinian Authority. (I hope the IDF will not leave carpets of cluster bomblets, as they did in Lebanon.)

Creative chaos theory applied to the I/P situation?

Bernhard over at Moon of AL notes that large numbers of tents have been set up in Egypt, just over the border, and fears that refugees who flee to Egypt may not be allowed back in. Some are near a hospital and may be for wounded, but there are reports of other tent locations. But he is conjecturing and has wondered earlier if the massive assaults on civilians and civilian infrastructure was designed to create conditions forcing Gazans to flee--only to find they will have no right of return. He used the term "ethnic cleansing."

This is now the second story, after post about ceasefire.

Since this assault on Gaza seemed crazy to me, I have no real idea what the Israeli government really wanted. I've read it was an election ploy to keep Netanyahu's party out of power and the current government in power; Wampum seems to feel this is a major reason and has several posts on it. Wampum has a photo of the current leadership, and they all look like nice, normal people--who would never be responsible for the kind of killing which has gone on. Of course, Bush and Cheney look like nice normal people as well. (Well, maybe not Cheney....)

All of this is enough to make you feel powerless. Of all of the reoccuring movies of this century and the last, we've seen the Israeli-Palestine movie far too many times, and it never changes, because the world's got it on loop.

BTW, anyone notice that the Israeli government is now saying they'll be out of Gaza "before Obama's inaugeration"? That's sounds a bit too convenient for me. Sounds like that was their plan, all along.