What if Israel attacks Gaza?

Mehdi Shakibayi: Israel has made many threats it would launch a new military attack against Gaza in response to Palestinian missile firings as well as the rare operation in al-Quds. The regime however is never able to launch such full-scale attacks on Gaza for several reasons.

For one thing, any new war on Gaza is impossible under the shadow of recent Arab revolutions which were primarily due to an Arab rage about normalization of ties with Israel by Arab governments. Such attacks are actually a declaration of war on all Arab people and might lead to dispatch of Arab popular forces to Gaza.

A further deterrence for Israel is that such an attack would further de-legitimize Israel in international scene. Israel is already considered a rogue state and many countries have joined the call on the UN to expel its ambassador and dock the war criminals within its apparatus.

Another reason to deter Israel is the timing of such an attack. On May 15, several weeks ahead, global activists have planned to send a second siege-busting freedom fleet to Gaza. Israel has yet to escape form the specter of negative impact of its undiplomatic attack on the first freedom fleet on May 31, 2010 which marred the international face of the regime.

For another reason, a new war on Gaza would open the front for a full scale war with Arab countries with resistance forces involved, from Hezbollah to Syria, and even Egypt.

Given the above, one could consider Benjamin Netanyahu's threats of launching "fateful operations" on Palestinian resistance as a psychological warfare, categorically aimed for internal use