Not everyone in Buenos Aires has lost their marbles with regard to Gaza. Writing in Perfil Jorge Castro says that,

The overwhelming force employed by Israel in its Gaza offensive appears to be directly related to its objective of deterrence. “Disproportionality” is not established in relation to the number of casualties - more than 400 Palestinians and 5 Israelis - but rather in relation to the objective sought: to make Hamas perceive that it will pay a “disproportionate” price for launching hundreds of missiles at Israeli territory and making daily life practically impossible in the south of the country.

Even if daily life in the south of Israel has over the years been made difficult, rather than impossible, by the missiles, this seems right on the money.

He goes on to say that, unlike in the past, Israel is now confronted by

… non-state actors, Hamas and Hezbollah, who present it with an asymmetric challenge in which there will be no clear cut victories or “lightning wars”, just deterrence - always fragile and temporary in the context of an endless conflict. With regard to deterrence what’s most important is not what happens, it’s a question of perception more than of reality, albeit with a tragically high cost in lives and property. What does Hamas perceive in the avalanche of fire and steel that is descending on it? Hezbollah declared that it had won the war in 2006 but stopped firing rockets at Israel. Will Hamas imitate the conduct of its Shiite ally?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, the Spanish conservative daily ABC carries an opinion piece - almost an editorial to judge from its location on the op-ed page - that gets rather carried away in its support for the Gaza Campaign. Under the headline “Give Israel a chance,” Rafael Bardají argues that

No other nation in the world would accept being continually bombarded from a neighboring territory and remain impassive. Israel’s retaliation against Hamas in Gaza should, therefore, come as no surprise. What’s really surprising is that it didn’t happen before, Israel has endured the unendurable.

Quite. However, he goes on to claim that only ten percent of Palestinian casualties in the current conflict have been civilians. I doubt if even the IDF Spokesman would try to uphold that statistic and I doubt if it could be claimed by any side in any conflict in the history of modern warfare.

He goes on to say that,

International pressure should be directed against our enemies, in this case Hamas, and not against our friends or saviors. Israel should feel our support in order for Hamas to become aware of its isolation and the reach of Israel’s soldiers. Hamas has been a disaster for the Palestinians and is the real obstacle to concluding the peace process in a reasonable manner. It is another wing of radical Islam, just like Iran, which maneuvers its pawns to the north and south of Israel in its search for hegemony in the Levant. Israel must not be asked to restrain itself and the military and political elimination of Hamas must be its objective. Anything less will simply result in the postponement of a conflict of greater proportions.

This is wild and unrealistic stuff. Hamas could only be eliminated by resort to methods similar to those employed by Russia in Chechnya and Israel simply isn’t going to do that. The most that can be hoped for is the renewed and reinforced deterrence suggested by Castro. Still though, it’s interesting to see this line being pushed by a newspaper with a strongly Roman Catholic profile.