Skin Off the Teeth

It's something more than ironic, something that approaches a terrible clarity that while US pundits prate and pontificate about abstracts such as Islamofascism and geopolitical objectives, those whose teeth skin see the Israeli invasion clearer and clearer every day in their realization of simple truths.

Gideon Levy, for example, boils Israel's invasion down to brass tacks, as they say. It's all about the real estate.

From Israel, Levy writes:

For years, Israel has waged war against the Palestinians with the main motive of insistence on keeping the occupied territories. If not for the settlement enterprise, Israel would have long since retreated from the occupied territories and the struggle's engine would have been significant neutralized. Not that a non-occupying Israel would have turned into the darling of the Arab world, but the destructive fire aimed at Israel would have significantly lessened, and those who continued to fight Israel would have found themselves isolated.