Bizarre week in the Middle East ends with no resolution as usual

I normally avoid writing about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because its just so depressing.  The two sides have clearly fallen into a pattern of absurd acts of violence in between which are propaganda wars.  The conflicts evolve but are always pointless.  Neither side ever accomplishes anything despite the rhetoric.

No one really knows why Hamas returned to launching rockets into southern Israel over the past month.  It may have been at the urging of Iran, an opportunity to flex their muscles now that they had been rearmed or trying to take advantage of the fact that Israelis were preoccupied with an election campaign.  Maybe it was a combination of all three.

The hostilities essentially ended because Hamas was likely almost out of rockets and Israel had run out of strategic targets to bomb.  So call a truce and build up for the next fight.  Interesting that Hamas wanted to showcase the more advanced rockets provided by Iran.  However, they were totally neutralized by the new Israeli Iron Dome missile shield.  Don't be fooled by the fact that only one-third of Hamas rockets were intercepted.  The missile shield only intercepts rockets that will hit an actual target.  It doesn't bother with rockets coming down on empty land or the sea.  As a result very few buildings were hit and only 5 people were killed.  In addition, the Israeli precision bombing took out many of the longer range missiles on the ground before they could be fired.  The fact that Hamas had fallen back to bus bombing on the second last day of the fight indicated how frustrated they must have been over the inability to inflict much damage.

The Israeli government had no interest in a land invasion.  That would have involved months of fighting and carried over into the election in January.  So if Hamas considers this a victory so be it.  Meanwhile residents of southern Israel are angry that the Gaza wasn't invaded and Hamas taken out.  They are fed up with air raid sirens and scrambling to take cover from random rocket attacks.  Whether this becomes an election issue is still up in the air.

Hamas may feel empowered in that it survived the onslaught.  I feel sorry for the poor residents of Gaza who had to rebuild after the 2008 invasion and now find themselves in a similar position.  They are caught between two hostile parties.  Meanwhile over 250 were killed and thousands injured.  There is no dissent in the Gaza where suspected collaborators are executed in the streets.  Hamas may have won the lasts election but there is no democracy in the Gaza.