Today is the day when Israel starts the dismantling of their Gaza settlements. Finally, common sense has prevailed in a place where common sense and reason is in such short supply.
What I find very interesting about this event is the Palestinian reaction to it. In the oft-repeated words of Abba Eban, "The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity". The militant factions within Palestine are scrambling to claim the credit for this withdrawal. They want to claim this as a victory for their tactics of hostel engagement against Israel. They can't wait to start shooting at the withdrawling settlers in order to give the appearance of driving them out at gun point.
This threat of theatrics has given the militant right wing Israelis a reason to protest the withdrawals. They don't want to give the appearance of surrendering with shame. They want to save face. Hamas and other militants on the Palestinian side are determined to make it appear as shameful as possible.
To their credit, both Israel and the PA (Palestinian Authority) recognize the danger of such inflammatory theatrics and have taken steps to prevent them. However, the PA does not seem to be able to do a whole lot to stop Hamas from doing what it wants. They have little to no control of the factions within Palestine. So it looks like it is going to be the same-old, same-old all over again. The Palestinians are trying their dammest to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory. They want to blow an opportunity to present themselves as a nation worthy of respect. They are so blinded by their hatred and rage that they can't see the damage they do to themselves by acting like spoiled children who can't think 2 days ahead on anything.
Today is also the 60th anniversary of the surrender of Japan to the Allied Forces in WWII. I mention this because there is a lesson for the Palestinians to be learned from a terrible mistake the Japanese made at the end of the war.
After the successful test of the atomic bomb at Trinity in New Mexico, the Allies send their demands of unconditional surrender to the Japanese. Allied intelligence intercepted communications within factions in Japan and discovered that a great concern of the Japanese was the disposition of the royal emperor. It appeared to the Allies that the idea of surrendering the Japanese monarchy was going to be a serious sticking point. The Japanese response was "No".
The Allies reasoned that what they really wanted was the surrender of Japanese military forces and to end all hostilities. So they decided to modify the demands in order to make the idea of surrendering palatable to the Japanese. A few days later the Allies issued their modified demands. They demanded the unconditional surrender of all Japanese military forces and to cease all hostilities. The issue of the monarchy was not a condition, which implied that the emperor himself did not have to relinquish his seat to satisfy the demands.
Now here is the mistake. The hard core militants in Japan looked at the new demands and noticed that the Allies had conceded the point about the monarchy. Rather than view this as a concession made from a position of strength (Truman knew he had the bomb), they viewed it as a sign of weakness. They reckoned that if they held out, then better and better offers would come their way, until they got what they want, which was to sue for peace. So again, they answered "no".
This answer convinced Truman that he had no choice left but to proceed the war on Japan, and to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
The point is, the Japanese missed their opportunity to surrender and suffer the atomic bombs because they viewed strength as weakness. They were so focused on saving face and calling bluffs that they failed to remember that they were not in a position to demand anything.
Getting back to Hamas and the Palestinians. They are making the same mistake. They want to view this event as a sign of weakness and they will madly celebrate their "victory" over their enemy. They will then attempt to capitalize on this to further their cause of the destruction of Israel. However, they will find out the hard way that what they have done is simply strengthened Israel's hand, both militarily and morally.
