Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.

 

1 August 2014

Americans should blame Hamas for the killing in Gaza

A cease fire in Gaza brokered in part by the United States lasted less than two hours, reports the New York Times. The immediate cause was a Hamas raid, launched from a tunnel, in which an Israeli soldier was captured. It’s not clear whether the raid was a deliberate breach of the cease fire or the result of a group of Hamas militants not knowing there was a cease fire:

Regarding the suspected capture of Lieutenant Goldin, Amos Yadlin, a former chief of Israel’s military intelligence directorate, said, “I think that what happened here is that the details of the cease-fire were not sufficiently clarified.”

In an interview with Israel Radio, Mr. Yadlin said the Israeli military would not leave Gaza until it completed the destruction of the tunnels, even during a cease-fire. “It is not completely clear to me if this was clear to Hamas,” he said.

Mr. Yadlin, who now directs the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, also said it was possible that the militants who emerged from the tunnel on Friday were cut off and did not know of the cease-fire. “In the absence of any command and control, “he said, “it could be that they emerged to commit a ‘preset’ attack that it had prepared earlier.”

Whether the cease fire would have held had Israel not retaliated immediately is anyone’s guess.

Thus, the horrific killing continues, with Palestinians suffering far more deaths and injuries than Israel — and this is what the fanatical and murderous thugs running Hamas want, explains Aaron David Miller, a former American negotiator who worked for years to broker a deal between the Palestinians and Israel, writing at CNN.com:

The more death and destruction in Gaza, the more Hamas needs an explanation at the end of the day to justify the sacrifices and the pain of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents. And it’s not even clear what the objectives of Hamas’ military wing really are. The real tragedy is that the odds against any lasting trade-off of demilitarization for economic freedom seem long indeed without some dramatic change in either Israel’s or Hamas’ calculations or Hamas’ total collapse and defeat.

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Hamas wants to survive with its military and political leadership intact, and it hopes that massive Palestinian casualties will galvanize the international community to press Israel to stop and that more IDF deaths will cause Israel to sour on the operation.

Americans and Europeans are rightly appalled by the killing and right to demand that it stop. But they are wrong to blame Israel. Hamas started this. It lobbed thousands of dumb ballistic rockets at Israel, hoping a few would kill or maim Israelis, and hoping that Israel would retaliate so that the lives of Palestinians could be sacrificed in the pursuit of Hamas’ ultimate goal, which is the elimination of Israel and its Jewish citizens. Hamas can end this right now by standing down, surrendering its weapons, renouncing violence, and embracing the right of Israel to exist in peace and prosperity. If Hamas continues fighting, then Israel has the right, need, and duty to destroy Hamas.