It appears likely that an Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip is imminent and Richard Silverstein is apoplectic. He is of the opinion that Israel will seek to remove up to 100,000 Gazans from their homes (by giving them warning and time to move) before invading areas from which rocket fire is emanating.
Where will these 100,000 Gaza refugees go? Will Israel provide them shelters or refuge? This is a humanitarian crisis in the making. There is no provision under international law for doing so under any circumstance.
Such a mass expulsion is a form of Nakba writ small. A reminder of the expulsion of 1-million Palestinians from their homeland in 1948. Now Israel can add a new moral stain to its human rights record.
Meanwhile, the State Department is unambiguously blaming Hamas for this conflict, which is too simplistic to say the least.
Yet, however this mess got started, with Hamas carrying out rocket barrages on Tel Aviv tonight, the IDF has no real choice but to escalate.
The question is, are they going to take over the whole strip and occupy and administer it?
That appears to be under serious consideration.
