Olmert is telling American Jewish organizations that he will never negotiate with Hamas, and is seeking UN and EU support to "isolate Hamas".
(Being the nice guy that he is, Olmert also takes the time for a photo op in the Big Apple)
Finally, an editorial of the LA Times declare that the emergence of "Hamastan" between Israel and Egypt is an unqualified disaster for the world". One can only logically conclude that any and all measures taken to protect the world from this "unqualified disaster" are, well, kosher, I suppose.
(How exactly the ousting of Fatah by Hamas in Gaza is an "unqualified disaster for the world" is anyone's guess)
Sure looks to me like we are about to see yet another grandiose "defensive action" by Israel with the full support of the "international community" in defense of "human rights, democracy, progress and humanity"...
I don't trust Hamas' ability to put up a good defense against the invasion of Gaza. I might be mistaken here, but I still have no reasons to believe that Hamas forces have received adequate training in urban warfare in what will be a very, very difficult environment. Also - if the Israelis act fast enough there will not have been enough time to prepare Gaza for the invasion. Unlike Grozny which had been built with extremely solid Soviet-era buildings and unlike Lebanon where Hezbollah had made extensive defensive preparations, Gaza is, as far as I know, very poorly buit and probably has little or no underground fortifications.
The scariest thing is that, unlike what happened in Fallujah, the Hamas fighters in Gaza do not have the option to withdraw as Gaza is totally surrounded by land, air and sea.
The best option for the Hamas fighters is thus to blend as much as possible among the rest of the population. Alas, that likely choice will certainaly result in a bloodbath once the Israelis and, even worse, the Fatah goons come in (I am rather confident that the terror the latter will heap on the Gaza residents in revenge for the recent humiliation of Fatah would have made any SS Totenkopfverbande proud).
All this reminds me of the leadup to the massacres of Sabra and Shatila.
UPDATE:
After meeting with Olmert, Bush has declared that Hamas "made the choice of violence".
In the meantime, Netanyahu is leaving for the USA to convince the US leaders to "increase the pressure on Iran."
By now I would say that all the "indicators and warnings" are clearly pointing towards an invasion of Gaza. This is insane, but it appears that the Imperial High Command has made the choice of trying to crash Hamas by force.
