EHUD BARAK THINKS THE REAL WAR IS AGAINST EGYPT

November 19 2012

Most of this sounds right except the nonsense about Hezbollah.  Israel did not stop in 2006 because of assurances coming from Syria and Iran.  It stopped because there was no alternative to a ground assault into Lebanon to stop the Hezbollah short range missiles which have no “signature” so couldn’t be intercepted.  And Israel was terrified at the prospect of “hand-to-hand” combat with Hezbollah, which-for once-was a rational calculation on their part.  But Israel is now no doubt hoping that Egypt, Qatar and Turkey don’t want an expansion of the war, and in fact they don’t.  Turkey and Qatar don’t want this Gaza “distraction” from Syria, and Egypt doesn’t want to endanger its relationship to the US.  On the other hand neither Egypt nor Turkey want to hand Israel another victory because it just means that they will be under Israel’s thumb in the future.

NF