JUST ANOTHER POLITICAL PARTY:

Despite threats, Hamas put up resistance (Matti Friedman, 1/20/09, AP)

Before Israel invaded the Gaza Strip, Hamas vowed to turn the territory into a "graveyard" for Israeli soldiers, and the military braced for dozens of fatalities. The results were markedly different.

The absence of any military threat from Hamas is just one of the reasons the war was such a waste.

MORE:
Smugglers Get Tunnels Back in Operation: Israel wanted to destroy the tunnels used to smuggle arms into the Gaza Strip from Egypt. But they failed to reach their objective: Gaza's tunnel diggers are already getting the underground passages back into order. (Volkhard Windfuhr and Bernhard Zand, 1/20/09, Der Spiegel)

Hassan's boss stands in a shoddily built concrete shack on the border strip and screams down a deep black hole in front of him. "Mohammed! Hang the lamp on the rope and come up! I'll shine a light for you!" The tunnel is 26 meters (85 feet) deep and 330 meters (1,080 feet) long. The two vertical shafts are lined with wood, but not the tunnel itself. Each tunnel costs around $70,000 (€54,000) to build. This particular tunnel ends in a house on the Egyptian side of the border. The police there are aware of the secret passage, but they have done nothing about it.

At the moment the electricity in the tunnel is out, meaning no goods can be transported through it. The motors for the cranes and transport sled aren't working and neither are the ventilation and lighting.

A dim light can be seen wobbling in the depths of the hole -- Mohammed is coming up. Two minutes later, he is at the top of the wooden ladder. The sweat is running off his forehead and his red Lacoste shirt is wet. "Everything's okay," he gasps and lies down on the ground, breathing heavily. "A lot of sand has got in, it'll take us a while to shovel it all out. But I managed to get across to the other side. Our friends in Egypt send their regards."

The failure to achieve even the derisory putative goals is another.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 20, 2009 7:33 AM