Mideast redux: End the cycle of retaliation

Israel must end its provocations and cycles of retaliations if it ever wants to achieve peace.

By Marwan Bishara

Al-Jazeera

"Watching the escalation in Israel/Palestine and the preparations for a possible all-out assault on the Gaza Strip, one hears many insightful and original commentary. Alas, when it's original it's usually inaccurate, and when it's right it's hardly new. Netanyahu, like his predecessors, is using the assassination of Hamas's leader Ahmad Jabari and subsequent escalation to undermine the Palestinian leadership's (Hamas and Fatah's) political standing and improve his own political chances, by underlining Israel's national security over economic security as the core issue preoccupying the nation, ahead of the elections.

To make the point, here's a piece I published six years ago titled, "Mideast: End the cycle of retaliation", with minor changes of dates, names etc. As they continue to repeat themselves tirelessly and recycle the same claims, I shall repeat my analysis......"