To its credit, yesterday the State Department rightly declared that Hamas was responsible for the latest round of violence along the Gaza border and that Israel had the right to defend itself. Even the New York Times editorial page affirmed that Israel had that right this morning. But the Times, speaking as it does for liberal conventional wisdom, claimed that Israel’s government was wrong to exercise that right. Rather than taking out the head of the terrorist group’s military wing, it “could have responded as it usually has in recent years, avoiding high-profile assassinations while attacking rocket-launching squads, empty training sites and weapons manufacturing plants.” The Times also suggested Israel could have implored the Muslim Brotherhood government of Egypt to intervene on its behalf with its Hamas ally. It concluded by saying that an even better idea would have been to conduct peace negotiations with Hamas’s Fatah rivals.
This risible list of suggestions provides the background to the debate that will, no doubt, soon ensue as inevitably the discussion about what has happened begins to revolve around how zealously Israel should defend itself. Farcical stories, such as those claiming Hamas was willing to make peace or at least agree to a permanent cease-fire, and that this was only prevented by a cynical decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch a counter-attack, will be told and believed by those who always buy into the lies of the terrorists. It will be argued that Israel needn’t have treated the latest massive barrage of rockets on its southern region as a big deal. But all this will be merely a cover for what is really at stake: the right of the Jewish state to live in peace, irrespective of where its borders are drawn.
The problem with all of the helpful suggestions that Israel is getting this week is that these suggestions treat the basic premise of Hamas’s strategic plan as either normal or reasonable. What’s wrong with the calls for restraint or the barbed comments about better alternatives to retaliation is that they are based on the idea that Israel ought to be willing to tolerate a “normal” amount of terrorism emanating from Gaza.
Throughout 2012 several hundred rockets have been fired from the Hamas-run enclave at southern Israel. Up until today, when three Israelis were killed in Kiryat Malakhi, there were no fatalities. But life under the threat of rocket fire in a region where more than one million Israelis live was never normal. Even the new and improved anti-missile systems the country can deploy are not good enough to prevent terrorist squads from taking pot shots at the country’s southern cities, towns and villages.
Many in the foreign policy establishment have spoken of Hamas as having embraced non-violence in the last year. But the group continued to not only fire rockets and to tolerate attacks from smaller organizations, it also continued to dig tunnels, such as the one found last week, designed to facilitate terrorist operations inside Israel and to build up its arsenal of rockets.
Some allege that Netanyahu’s decision to retaliate for the recent surge in rocket attacks is linked to his own political prospects in Israel’s January elections. But that reverses the truth about the fighting. It is Hamas that is playing politics with rockets as it seeks to upstage the Palestinian Authority and to solidify its popularity by demonstrating that it is attacking Israel.
Netanyahu is hoping that he can avoid a costly ground operation. Few in Israel want any part of an infantry battle inside Gaza or to return to governing the area that it abandoned in 2005. But the idea that Israel has reasonable alternatives to air operations intended to hamper Hamas’s ability to attack Israel is a myth. The peace process is dead in the water precisely because support for terror against Israel and opposition to its right to exist makes it impossible for any Palestinian moderates — and it is a stretch to claim that term applies to the PA and its Fatah leadership — to negotiate with Israel. If there is to be any hope for peace, Hamas terrorism must be stopped. The group provoked this battle because it believed that the fighting would enhance its standing with Palestinians while doing nothing to harm its warm relations with Egypt and Turkey. But its leadership must be made to understand that the cost of this fighting will be higher than it can afford to pay.
There may be no definitive answer to the threat from Hamas, but continuing to ignore it is no solution. Netanyahu’s problem stems in large measure from a willingness on the part of the international community to treat the existence of a terrorist state on Israel’s borders as something that it must be forced to live with. Those that ask Israel to go on living with “normal” terrorism and to take no serious measures to halt the constant barrage of missiles onto its territory are acting as if the lives of those who live under this threat are worth nothing. That is a premise no government can ever accept.
Mr. Tobin writes: "The group provoked this battle because it believed that the fighting would enhance its standing with Palestinians while doing nothing to harm its warm relations with Egypt and Turkey. But its leadership must be made to understand that the cost of this fighting will be higher than it can afford to pay." n nNot so. Not even close. First, this battle has been coming for years, as that's how long Hamas has launched rockets and mortars into Israel. It's been years that children have to run into bunkers at a moment's notice because of these indiscriminate attacks. This battle did not begin yesterday, it began when Hamas first launched its weapons against Israel. Make no mistake about that. n nNext, Hamas, like the PA, does not fight to enhance its standing, nor does it fight to gain the support of its people or to undermine the support for others. Those are secondary, almost tertiary goals. Hamas sends rockets and missiles into Israeli cities and population centers because Hamas hates Israel (and Jews) and they seek to destroy the state, however they can. If Hamas could perform some magical spell and Israel would disappear, they would do that. If Hamas can antagonize Israel, make life unbearable for Israelis who just want to live in peace, Hamas will do that. n nThe problem is not that Hamas seeks to bolster its support among others. The problem, the root of this evil, is the unyielding hatred of Hamas (and Palestinians in general) toward Israelis in particular, and need it be mentioned, the West in general. (Let's not even start with how Hamas, and the PA, educate their children into that hatred.) n nThus, you cannot simply ascribe Western values and ideas and fit Hamas into that mold. To do so is to fool yourself that those who hate you can be reasoned with. Rather, Israel has to take the offensive and make the cost for Hamas too high for them to continue their terrorism. It is sad but that's the reality. The sooner we all recognize this, the better we can deal with it.
Excellent. n nDo not expect Jonathan Tobin to state what you wrote, even if he does believe it (of which I am less than sure). n nHe has a career as a pundit to think of, and any punditry too far outside the mainstream may limit his future options. n nHe is walking a line as it is, sadly. n n n n
How do you explain the exclusive financial support from the West to UNWRA until today. Not a penny from the Muslim world. The Muslims clearly care less about the Pal.
"Throughout 2012 several hundred rockets have been fired from the Hamas-run enclave at southern Israel. Up until today, when three Israelis were killed in Kiryat Malakhi, there were no fatalities." n nBut there were certainly fatalities before 2012. Some years ago (it may have been about the time of Cast Lead), I attended a talk by a teen-aged Ethiopian Oleh telling us what here life was like in southern Israel, and how her uncle had been killed by a Hamas rocket. n
If you removed your Bibi-blinders, you would also recognize that Bibi's five-year tolerance for Hamas rockets – preceded of course by Olmert's tolerance of them – fostered a situation where the status quo of Hamas firing on southern Israel was considered by both Israel and the world as normal. Indeed, even now Bibi's Defense Minister Barak says he wants a return to the "quiet" that preceded the most recent flare-up. Thus a few rockets a day is considered ok. So it is still highly unlikely that Bibi is determined to really end the endless terrorism from Hamas. Tobin, maybe it is time to stop uncritically defending Bibi and start articulating a plan to eliminate Hamas, whose goal is nothing less than the genocide of the Jewish people. Most regretfully, Bibi entertains no such plan.
Quite so. Hamas' rockets have become in the world's eyes quite "normal," almost comical or cute, like the bumbling North Korean sniper on the silly old M.A.S.H. show. Had Israel responded with sufficient deterrence after the first couple of rockets, as any other government in the world with the capacity to do so would have done, we wouldn't be talking about this today. It's surely better to absorb international hand-wringing than thousands of rockets landing on one's citizens. n
Now is the time to wage precisely the kind of battle the Arabs want. Rain down artillery shells randomly by the hundreds on Gaza. Make them live in absolute terror and fear that their kids will blown apart their hospitals and schools blown up the very fabric of their lives torn apart.
In my opinion, it is no coincidence that the sudden barage of rockets began just as Abbas is going to the UNGA to attempt an upgrade. I do not think that it is an attempt to upstage as Jonathan suggests, but a coordinated effort in order to give fodder to Abbas to pursue lawfare in the ICC. I think that Abbas is fairly certain that he will obtain the upgrade and this latest incident would certainly give him new material to take to the ICC.r nArafat had coordinated suicide bombings in Israel with Hamas and I do not think that Abbas is any less devious.
Can someone tell me why Israel is still sending Gaza water and electricity? Perhaps if the Gaza residents felt real pain, they might overthrow the murderous terrorists. Regime change in Gaza is the only formula for peace.
rabbisw, I do agree with you about gaza. It should be made a neutral zone and cease supplying the water and electricity which I did not know they were doing. The Palestinians do not need to be inside the state of Isreal. As long as they are there, there will always be contention in that region. Unfortunetly that might not even do it ! but you have to do something. Doing nothing is not an option !!!
Only a fool wastes ammunition.
Now is the right time to hit Hamas terrorists hard. First step in the war with Iran.
The Palestinian Arabs are left twisting in the wind by their so-called Arab "brothers" who have, for generations now, refused them hospitality and sanctuary in the huge expanse of territory and with the oil wealth at their disposal. If there was one ounce of sincerity in them, the squalor their "brothers" exist in Gaza could never have happened. Gaza is not and should not be viable and one way or another it will end. The only way it will be a good end is if their Arab brothers finally face up to their responsibility. n nSince Hamas now has a friendly regime in the neighboring state of Egypt, it is time to close the refugee camp in Gaza and repatriate the residents to Egypt. The US can make its contribution by, instead of military aid to the Egyptian army, diverting the savings to the humanitarian assistance that will be required.
Actually, Jonathan, after a two week lull in the tit-for-tat violence, a lull that was obtained by a brokered ceasefire, it was the Israelis that were responsible for the latest round of violence that has led to this current crisis when on 8 November 2012 they machine-gunned to death from a helicopter a 13-year-old Gazan boy who was playing soccer. n nTo say that Hamas was responsible for the latest round of violence is a blatant lie.
Anyone wanting to read blatant lies can just read your posts, Damian.
Talk peace talks with your executioner. Perhaps some people on death row should try that! nNYT has great IDEAS as usual. If you fail to save ur neck you implore not Morsi but Allah!
” Those that ask Israel to go on living with “normal” terrorism and to take no serious measures to halt the constant barrage of missiles onto its territory are acting as if the lives of those who live under this threat are worth nothing. ”
But of course because if one opened one’s eyes one would have seen that it was only Israelis who have been denied “human rights” when it comes to terrorism.
All those people living with the constant threat of rockets crashing down on their heads are alspo suffering from the tension and stress, especially the children many of whom are suffering from PTSD.