This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• With Israelis cast as villains people wonder about a ground invasion of Gaza
• Turkey and Egypt take the lead in mediating a Gaza truce
• Israel's 'Iron Dome' air defense system a game changer

With Israelis cast as villains people wonder about a ground invasion of Gaza

Israeli soldiers gather next to their armored bulldozers stationed on Israel's border with Gaza on Saturday, awaiting orders for the ground invasion (CNN)

The Israelis are being cast as the villains in the Gaza conflict by pro-Palestinian protesters around the world -- in America, Canada, Britain, Russia, Europe, and Iran, as well as in Arab countries. Britain's prime minister David Cameron expressed his sympathy for the unacceptable rocket attacks on Israel, but said the UK was pressuring both sides to de-escalate, and urged Israel's prime minister Netanyahu to do everything possible to bring the conflict to an end.

With worldwide pressure continuing to build on Israel not to launch a ground invasion of Gaza, Israeli troops and tanks have been traveling to the border with Gaza but (as of this writing on Saturday evening ET) there's been no sign that a ground invasion was imminent. The war appears to have reached a kind of stasis -- Hamas is launching hundreds of missiles into Israel, and Israel is launching hundreds of air strikes at Hamas targets in Gaza. It's possible that Israel is using the air strikes to soften up Gaza's military before a ground invasion, or it's possible that Israel has decided that it has nothing more to gain with a ground invasion than it can get with air strikes. BBC

Turkey and Egypt take the lead in mediating a Gaza truce

What happens next appears to hinge on the negotiating skills of Egypt's president Mohamed Morsi and Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The two Sunni Muslim leaders met in Cairo on Saturday for an emergency Arab League which, as usual, did nothing more than issue speeches and declarations. However, Morsi and Erdogan have personally committed to bringing about a truce between Hamas and Israel, and with President Barack Obama having little remaining credibility in the Mideast, Morsi and Erdogan are best positioned to mediate.

Erdogan vowed support for the Palestinians, and said that sooner or later, Israel will have to pay the price for the children killed in Gaza. He added that Egypt and Turkey are capable of jointly bringing stability to the Middle East, without the need of outside "brokers."

It appears that the key to any mediation is to convince Hamas and Islamic Jihad to stop launching rockets into Israel. From Israel's point of view, that would presumably remove the need for continued military action, as long as both sides continue to honor the truce for more than a few minutes. Zaman (Istanbul) and Al-Ahram (Cairo)

Israel's 'Iron Dome' air defense system a game changer

"Iron Dome" is the name of Israel's defense system against short-range missiles coming from Gaza. Iron Dome detects incoming missiles and launches its own missile to intercept and destroy the incoming missile. According to the Israeli military, it works in all weather conditions:

"The radar detects a rocket launch and passes information regarding its path to the control center, which calculates the predicted point of impact. If this location justifies an interception, a missile is fired to intercept the rocket. The payload of the interceptor missile explodes near the rocket, in a place that is not expected to cause injuries."

On Saturday, Jerusalem was saved from an incoming missile by an Iron Dome intercept.

In 2011, Israel's military said that Iron Dome had a 70% success rate. Over the past three days, 737 rockets from Gaza were fired into Israel: 492 landed, but 245 were intercepted by the Iron Dome system. CNN

Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail