New (to Foreign Policy magazine) blogger Marc Lynch makes a compelling argument that al-Qaeda stands to be the winner either way of Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

Update: By the same token, it’s pretty clear who’s losing. (See this blog post for background.)

Ezra Klein’s post on Israel’s assault on Gaza is the smartest thing I’ve seen written about Israel and Palestine in a long time. It doesn’t lead to any conclusions, but his observations are incredibly important. The bottom line:

One important disconnect in Israel/Palestine debate is that Israel’s supporters tend to focus on what the Palestinians want while Palestine’s supporters tend to focus on what the Israelis do. Israel’s defenders, for instance, make a lot of Hamas’s willingness to kill large numbers of civilians. Palestine’s defenders make a lot of the fact that Israel actually kills large numbers of Palestinian civilians.