Netanyahu: Israel engaged in historic battle for its home | The Times of Israel  ‘PM sends condolences to the families of 13 fallen soldiers, stresses Gaza op may continue for many days’

This may indeed be a historic battle. Or it might be just another milestone along a very bumpy road, one that has already been travelled for decades and looks well set to span several more.

No matter how many troops are funneled into this latest round of hostilities and notwithstanding the precision with which they are used, there is no real endgame here. The huge numbers of airstrikes and bombardments that now take place will never bring about closure in a contest that has outlived many of those who were there at its very start.

And all this is because of a feature not included in its basic design, the omission of which has caused it to be unconfined and self-perpetuating. Nowhere in its entire program has any provision been made for a shut-down sequence. Even if this present engagement were to achieve every one of its aims and more, there is still no defined procedure for switching off any of the many underlying forces that sustain and direct so endless a saga.

Yet the prospect of entering the final phase in this perpetual drama, of finding some key that will power off a conflict that has raged across generations, must always be ‘a consummation devoutly to be wished.’

And if the search for such a key has been long and diligent enough, then that item may yet be found and turned to unlock a puzzle that has defied full and formal solution since the very beginning of time.

www.laxiankey.com – ‘ for those of us with better things to do.’