MIDDLE EAST : IRREPERABLE DAMMAGE ?

It is impossible to predict what might follow after the Hamas slaughter frenzy which nobody saw coming. Options are few, and in the current situation the better intentions feel tenuous.

Israel suffers from an irreversible loss of acumen. The worst PM can hardly be expected to make the right assessments. Israel, yesterday's exceptional country, became in a fortnight just another case of delusion and poor judgement.

Hamas belongs to the hybrid and showed an unexpected knack for viciousness and infiltration. By striking Israel it attempted to derail America's grand plan for a workable Middle East. It also made the Palestinian Authority look irrelevant.

The Israeli carpet-bombing of Gaza and the collateral measures considered to isolate it might very well boomerang. They are too indiscriminate to gather long-term support. The horror inflicted by one does not warrant the repeat thereof by the other.

The United States and the EU should be relentless in their push for a two-state solution. Netanyahu's obstinate policies only accelerated the downfall of the democratic fabric in Israel and the descent into hell it finds itself in. 

Arab public opinion remained always skeptical regarding arrangements between various Arab states and Tel Aviv. Every form of rapprochement might be harder to push through under the current circumstances.

The EU should beware of a reversal of priorities. One flare up in the Middle East should not distract from the fact that the European house is on fire. Ukraine is the ultimate litmus test and all energy and support have to focus on Ukraine first and for all. Other situations abound and cannot be ignored for sure. 

Ukraine has a leader who deserves respect, while in Israel there there remains a leader who, unfortunately for his country, is the wrong man for undoing what is mostly the outcome of his very own perverse arrogance.