Submitted for your perusal and edification from today’s e-mail from The Jewish Week
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Hamas Equals Terror
by The Editors
The dirty little secret of the current conflict in the Mideast is that despite all the international talk about working toward a peaceful solution for Israelis and Palestinians, that can never happen as long as Hamas rules Gaza.
Israel is doing Fatah’s dirty work by taking on the Hamas terrorists. Fatah’s soldiers were routed last year by Hamas in the brief but brutal civil war between the rival Palestinian factions. And Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, knows full well that the only reason his PA has not been overrun by Hamas is because Israel stands in the way.
For all the meetings and photo ops between Abbas and Israeli government officials over the last year regarding a comprehensive peace, both sides understand
— as does the UN, the Quartet and the rest of the world — that Hamas exists to commit war in the name of Islam, and will not allow a Palestinian-Israeli agreement.
That is why Abbas no doubt is rooting for the IDF, as indeed are many of the Arab states’ leaders these days, hoping Israel will punish Hamas, though they would not say so publicly for fear of upsetting “the street.” The leaders understand full well that conflicts that strengthen Hamas or Hezbollah bring more power to the regime in Iran, the primary source of funding and support for these two terror groups.
Some Israeli military officers have described the war in Gaza as an early round in the showdown fight that pits Israel and the West against a nuclear Iran. One can only wonder why the same leaders in Europe and the moderate Arab world who are so fearful of such a confrontation cannot bring themselves to more fully voice their support for Israel’s actions in its effort to thwart the terrorists and stop the rockets raining on its own citizens.
Hamas rails against Israel for “massacres” but cynically places its fighters amid the civilian population, exploiting any resulting casualties. So media headlines focused on the deaths caused at a United Nations school in Gaza this week rather than on the fact that Israeli troops were returning fire that was coming from the school. The secondary explosions on the scene indicated that the school was being used to store ammunition, as had been done in mosques and hospitals as well.
In-depth media reports often give context to the conflict, but news headlines and body counts imply that the combatant killing more people — Israel — is therefore more at fault.
Yet the solution to the current crisis is simple: have Hamas stop attacking Israel, as it has done on an almost daily basis with rockets for more than seven years. Israel has no interest in ruling Gaza; it wants to ensure that its citizens can live their lives without the constant fear of a rocket destroying their homes, their families, their very lives.
Put another way, as has been noted: if Israel had all the ammunition, there would be no war. If Hamas had all the ammunition, there would be no Israel.
The Israeli “occupiers” left Gaza completely in the summer of 2005, unilaterally uprooting some 8,000 Jewish civilians living in communities there, and its entire army presence. End of story? Obviously not.
Hamas chose to continue to send rockets into Israeli communities in the south rather than build a society for its own people.
It built tunnels to smuggle in heavy arms, and continues to abide by a charter that calls for the death not only of the Jewish state, but of all Jews.
Do people realize that Israel is committed to a two-state solution with the Palestinians, and that it is Hamas that is opposed?
No peace can come to the Palestinians as long as Hamas rules.