This is a MarketsMuse Editorial Comment in response to a group email sent yesterday by Paul Singer of Elliott Management to his DL. That email sought to raise awareness about both the recent “under-reported” events in France in which 2 synogogues were burned by so-called Pro-Palestinian youth..who are presumably Islmaic fundamentalists, and the broader topic profiling events taking place in Gaza and Israel, and the manner in which news media is “reporting” the topic and the manner in which the US and the universe of democratic countries are “responding” to the issues immediately at hand. Singer’s note was compelling (see below)…our editorial opinion follows accordingly..

“….The international community, which has a significant stake in protecting international air traffic from terrorist rocket attacks, must support Israel’s efforts to stop these attacks—permanently. If Hamas is allowed to shut down Israel’s major airport, every terrorist group in the world will begin to target airports throughout the world. The shooting down of the Malaysian airliner over the Ukraine will be but one of many such tragedies, if Hamas is allowed to succeed. An attack on the safety on Israel’s airport is an attack on the safety of all international aviation. Israel is the canary in the mine. What Hamas has done to Israeli aviation is a warning to the world. In its efforts to prevent Hamas from firing rockets at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel is fighting for the entire civilized world against those who would shoot down civilian airliners. The world should support Israel in this noble fight…”

“….The broader implications of the Gaza War are gradually coming into view. This article deals with an important aspect. While the range and accuracy of the Hamas and Hezbollah missiles have been known to be inexorably improving, the extension of that range to Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem (in effect, all of Israel) has apparently taken the population by surprise. Nobody could possibly have flown into Israel in the last few decades and not looked out the window at Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and not wondered what the risk was in landing or taking off in such a vulnerable place. And now we know for a fact, and viscerally, that the threat of Hamas and Hezbollah rockets is actually to all of Israel and to the country’s very existence.

And now it is also viscerally clear what the difference is between the West Bank and Gaza, in terms of Israeli military access and presence to prevent terrorist infrastructure from unfettered freedom to build rockets, tunnels, explosives shops. Continue reading →