Reference: Gaza strikes remind foes Israel has teeth, Bangkok Post, January 2, 2009

An oped piece from the New York Times (Gaza strikes remind foes Israel has teeth, Bangkok Post, January 2, 2009) represents Israel's failed invasion of Lebanon in 2006 as an inconclusive stalemate that alowed the Hizbollah to win "a great deal of credit among Arabs". In fact it won more than that. It won the war and humiliated the Israeli military whose fabled intelligence services grossly understimated the number and effectiveness of Hizbollah's rocket and anti-tank aresenal and their ability to engage in a protracted guerilla war in the face of overwheming force. If that were not so it would not be necessary now for the Labour Party, ahead of the upcoming elections in February of 2009, to put on a shock and awe display in the Gaza as a way of re-establishing Israeli military might.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand