Sunday, May 16, 2004

Hezbollah tactics in Gaza?: "Afterwards, Palestinian militants engaged in numerous attacks on Israeli soldiers, which have killed 13 soldiers... Israel's top brass are concerned that Palestinian militants may have adopted Hizbollah tactics in their latest ambushes in Gaza. What this means is clear. After a brief initial period, Hizbollah basically settled down to the following tactics: concentrate their attacks on the military, with attacks on civilians essentially confined to "reprisals" for Israeli killing of civilians... As one person who has spent time in Palestine said to me when I asked her about the political effectiveness of the Hamas/al-Aqsa Martyrs' strategy of blowing up buses, restaurants, hotels, etc. (it is clearly immoral and illegal, but immoral and illegal actions are often effective), "When you attack soldiers, people call for withdrawing the soldiers. When you attack civilians, people call for sending in more soldiers to protect them."

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