Israel, Deterrence, and Self-referentialism - Helena Cobban

Just World News, January 18, 2009 - Israeli leaders and analysts have proclaimed that one of the main goals of the ghastly, extremely inhumane war on Gaza was to "restore the credibility of Israeli deterrence"-- a credibility that had, they felt, been badly damaged by the outcome of the 33-Day War against Hizbullah in 2006.

But some influential Israelis, it now turns out, have a very weird and self-referential understanding of what "deterrence" is. It turns out that their version of deterrence has much more to do with their own machismo or testosterone level than it does with the attitudes or feelings of non-Israeli others who are or might become their opponents in war....

Helena Cobban is a writer and researcher on global affairs. She is a Contributing Editor of Boston Review and was a columnist for The Christian Science Monitor from 1990-2007. She blogs at Just World News, where this piece was originally posted.