MADELEINE BRAND, Host:
And now, for some political analysis, we're joined by Tamara Wittes. She's an expert on Israeli-Arab relations at the Brookings Institution. So, let's start off with Israel. Why did it launch, as Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, an all-out war against Hamas now?
TAMARA WITTES: The third factor that some folks have raised is whether Israel undertook this operation now because they wanted to take advantage of the last few weeks of the Bush administration's tenure in office, that they wanted to do this when they knew they had a sympathetic government in Washington. I think, frankly, that was probably a minor consideration if anything in their calculations.
BRAND: And Israel is not getting a lot of positive attention from the rest of the world in terms of the scale of these attacks. There's been a lot of criticism, especially from Ban Ki-moon at the UN, that Israel is being particularly heavy-handed here.
WITTES: This is a situation where Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 - that was a withdrawal certified by the United Nations - and yet remains under attack from that territory into its own sovereign territory. So the idea that it would respond to that, I think, is not outlandish.
BRAND: Let's talk about Hamas. It had been losing support - political support in Gaza. Will this campaign, the Israel bombing, will it hurt or help Hamas politically in Gaza?
WITTES: So, I don't think that the Gaza population is under any illusions that a Hamas government is going to bring them tremendous benefits. But in the face of this kind of assault, they're willing to support it regardless. How long that support will be sustained after this assault is over, that, I think, is the real question.
BRAND: Tamara Wittes of The Brookings Institution, an expert on Israeli-Arab relations, thank you very much.
WITTES: Thank you.
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