Haroon Siddiqui: Israel becoming its own worst enemy

The 1982 Israeli attack on the PLO in Beirut, the 1982-2000 occupation of south Lebanon, the crushing of the two intifadas (1987-93 and 2000-04), and the 2006 invasion of Lebanon were all portrayed as part of the war on terror and each a fight to the finish. Now the Gaza operation is meant to "totally change the rules of the game," says Tzipi Livni. It won't.

Israel has ended up with the exact opposite of what it wanted.

Islamists have been strengthened at the expense of secularists. Hamas, Hezbollah and their backers Iran and Syria are riding high, while Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are on the defensive.

Israel either does not want peace, as its critics claim, or it does but by dictating terms to a pliant partner. In either case, a ceasefire in Gaza, if and when it comes, can only buy time, if that.

What we are witnessing "will have historic consequences," writes Uri Avnery, veteran Israeli peace activist.

"A whole generation of Arab leaders, imbued with the ideology of secular Arab nationalism, may be swept from the stage. Tomorrow, Israel may be faced with a uniformly fundamentalist Arab world, Hamas multiplied by a thousand."