Nir Rosen is out with a worthy OpEd at the Guardian UK in which he examines the on-going disaster in Gaza and Palestine in the context of  colonialism and resistance to it.

I highly recommend the entire piece, but one part struck me because it recalled an observation by Israeli historian and military strategist Martin van Creveld because I think here we can see why the present Israeli violence as with its Lebanon adventure is doomed to bloody and pointless failure

First Rosen:

An American journal once asked me to contribute an essay to a discussion on whether terrorism or attacks against civilians could ever be justified. My answer was that an American journal should not be asking whether attacks on civilians can ever be justified. This is a question for the weak, for the Native Americans in the past, for the Jews in Nazi Germany, for the Palestinians today, to ask themselves
Terrorism is a normative term and not a descriptive concept. An empty word that means everything and nothing, it is used to describe what the Other does, not what we do. The powerful - whether Israel, America, Russia or China - will always describe their victims' struggle as terrorism.

Van Creveld observed in comparing Iraq and Vietnam (an observation equally applicable to the Lebanon invasion which I believe he supported):

In international life, an armed force that keeps beating down on a weaker opponent will be seen as committing a series of crimes; therefore it will end up by losing the support of its allies, its own people, and its own troops. Depending on the quality of the forces - whether they are draftees or professionals, the effectiveness of the propaganda machine, the nature of the political process, and so on - things may happen quickly or take a long time to mature. However, the outcome is always the same. He (or she) who does not understand this does not understand anything about war; or, indeed, human nature.

In other words, he who fights against the weak - and the rag-tag Iraqi militias are very weak indeed - and loses, loses. He who fights against the weak and wins also loses. To kill an opponent who is much weaker than yourself is unnecessary and therefore cruel; to let that opponent kill you is unnecessary and therefore foolish. As Vietnam and countless other cases prove, no armed force however rich, however powerful, however, advanced, and however well motivated is immune to this dilemma. The end result is always disintegration and defeat...

It is a lesson that, after 60 years of unremitting violence and oppression of the Palestinians, the Israelis, to their ulitmate peril, have not learned

Now I fear it is too late for them to learn.

Why Iraq Will End as Vietnam Did