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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/world/middleeast/29assess.html
With Strikes, Israel Reminds Foes It Has Teeth
[New York Times] Ethan Bronner - Israel's military operation in Gaza is aimed primarily at forcing Hamas to end its rocket barrages and military buildup. But it has another goal as well: to re-establish Israeli deterrence. Mark Heller, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said there was a deep feeling among average Israelis that the country had to regain its deterrent capacity after the 2006 Lebanon war. "There has been a nagging sense of uncertainty in the last couple years of whether anyone is really afraid of Israel anymore," he said. "The concern is that in the past...people didn't mess with Israel because they were afraid of the consequences. Now the region is filled with provocative rhetoric about Israel the paper tiger. This operation is an attempt to re-establish the perception that if you provoke or attack, you are going to pay a disproportionate price." The risk to Israel in Gaza is that if the operation fails or leaves Hamas in the position of scrappy survivor or even somehow perceived as the victor, it could then dominate Palestinian politics over the more conciliatory and pro-Western Fatah movement for years to come.