My first organized thoughts on the Israel-Hamas conflict was were posted at the
Daily Beast's Open Zion [edited by Peter Beinart] yesterday.
 
Here’s the main conclusion:
 
It’s hard to argue politics wasn’t somewhere in the back of the minds of the elected leaders
when they decided to go ahead with the military campaign.But such an assault is a very risky
move: while so far, the Israel Defense Forces has successfully minimized civilian casualties,
there was no guarantee this would or will be the case. There is even less guarantee that
Israel will be able to avoid a ground invasion in response to whatever Hamas does—which would
in turn raise real questions about the ultimate military objective and exit strategy, and the
associated costs of not having these.
 
 
Click here to read the full post.