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A Sense of Victory by Both Hamas and Israel
(Jerusalem Post) Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin - Following two Fridays of clashes at the border fence between Israel and Gaza, Hamas has a sense of victory and satisfaction. In its view, Hamas has reclaimed the leadership of the Palestinian struggle, found an effective strategy to challenge Israel, shown PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to be irrelevant, and sparked international criticism of Israel. At the same time, security and political circles in Israel have expressed a sense of victory: a breach of the fence and a mass influx of Palestinians into Israeli territory were prevented; large numbers of Palestinian casualties did not occur; Israel displayed an effective response to the attempt to challenge Israeli sovereignty by means of terror under the cover of "mass marches"; attempts to place explosives along the fence and across it were foiled; there were no Israeli deaths; and the Israeli communities close to the Gaza perimeter celebrated Passover without disturbances. Hamas suffered numerous casualties among its ranks, losses that will make it more difficult to maintain the size of the protest around the fence. Moreover, Hamas failed to create the impression of a non-violent protest. Yet if the U.S. had not stood by Israel, a UN commission of inquiry would already have been formed to investigate the events. The writer, former head of IDF Military Intelligence, is director of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.