[Hamas Gunman - AP Photo by Hatem Moussa]Guest post by Bob Poris.
I have no way of knowing how the Israeli attacks against the Gaza terrorists will end, but it didn’t have to come to this.
Israel voluntarily withdrew from Gaza in 2005 as part of a "land for peace" deal that had been pushed upon it for decades. It left prosperous businesses intact for the Gazans to use to shore up its economy.
That's not what happened!
Instead of instituting programs and policies which would benefit the citizens of Gaza, Hamas turned Gaza into a front line military base in a long-term Islamist confrontation with Israel, backed by Iran. It has rejected any attempts to negotiate a two-state solution with Israel.
Hamas began a daily barrage of rockets into Israeli towns over a year ago! Over four thousand rockets have been fired into Israel since 2005! These rockets have narrowly missed blowing up Israeli children in kindergartens and giant fuel storage facilities in built-up areas of Southern Israel.
The various cease fires have been used by Hamas to smuggle more sophisticated rockets and weapons into Israel and to build up its forces to wage terror against Israel.
Israel’s attacks are not the result of the end of the last cease fire. They are a response to eighteen months of rockets being launched against Israeli cities and civilians by the elected governing body of Gaza and seven years of attacks from Gaza, and the ideology which fuels them.
What nation on earth would have waited so long for talks to stop a war waged against it? Why should Israel be asked to not react to the indiscriminate killing of its citizens over so many years?
Why indeed?
2 comments:
last year at Annapolis - bush proclaimed he would have peace in the middle east by the time he left office.
i should have taken that bet -- would have replenished the 401K.
this is such a complex situation - with no good answers or outcomes. i dont what to say on this - exxcept whenever I do I get shellacked by someone.
Since I wrote the original message, the intensity of Israel’s attacks has increased. It is Israel’s aim to reduce or eliminate Hamas’s ability to rain death and destruction upon Israeli cities and civilians. It has gone on for too many years while the UN continues to finance the refugee camps while ignoring their use as bases for terrorists. The Palestinian people have been used by corrupt leader since Arafat came into power after Jordan gave up the west bank. It had little to do with Israel at the time.
There had been no effort by the Arab states between 1948 and 1967 to form a Palestinian state. Apparently they were satisfied with Jordan as a Palestinian state. They wanted to eliminate the Jewish State and still do.
Gaza was a test of the “land for peace” that the UN and the major powers have promoted for decades. It failed miserably. Gaza got rid of the Israelis and immediately waged a war to kill Israelis. Israel decided that enough was enough. The various peace plans never stopped the killing of Israelis or moved the Palestinians closer to becoming a viable state. Their economy got worse and lawlessness increased.
Their corrupt leaders live well, while their people starve.
I do not know how it will end. But history indicates that Israel will be forced to stop before it destroys Hamas. Hamas will rebuild and we will see another round of violence again as soon a s they rebuild their forces.
Bob Poris
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