SHOOTING YOUR OWN FOOT IN GAZA

Israel strikes back after Gaza militants attack Nahal Oz fuel depot.
Photo credit by David Buimovitch AFP/Getty Images

If I were a Gaza resident right now I'd be a tad angry and bewildered about the Palestinian militants with rockets and suicide on their minds. What doesn't get reported very often is that dozens of the home made rockets don't actually make it over the Gaza fence to blow up in Israel. Instead, they careen crazily out of control and crash down on hapless Palestinians in northern Gaza.

I wonder: Are you a martyr, a shaheed, if killed by friendly fire?

And what sense does it make to attack the fuel depot at Nahal Oz, as happened on Wednesday ?Two Israeli workers were killed along with 7 Islamic Jihad militants? during the raid. After all, this is Gaza's main source of fuel coming from Israel. Maybe in some parallel dimension of Realpolitk, the militants could make a case that if you force Israel to shut the fuel tap, Gaza's 1.5 million residents will suffer and the outside world blames Israel. I don't think so. On some level, though they dare not voice it openly, Gazans must have mixed feelings about the militants: on one hand, they admire them for standing up to Israel. But on the other hand, they must ask themselves how much these rockets and kamikaze attacks actually hurt Israel. The answer: it hurts the Gazans far, far more. But that won't stop the rockets from coming, or Israel tanks from rolling..

by Tim McGirk/Jerusalem