July 9, 2014, - 9:26 am
Don’t Get Too Excited: Despite HAMAS Rockets, Israel Won’t Flatten Gaza, Problems Will Grow
*** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ***
I feel like Yogi Berra when it comes to what’s going on in Israel today. It’s deja vu all over again. During the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006, or when Israel was forced to fight HAMAS in 2007 and again in 2008, 2009 and 2010, many friends and readers cheered Israel’s response, saying, “This time, Israel will finally crush them.” Um, no, this time and the next time and the next time after that, Israel will do no such thing. And so HAMAS (and in several cases Hezbollah) will use it as a victory to regroup, refresh, recruit, and re-arm. That’s what will happen this time, too. And that’s exactly the problem.
Rocket missiles are falling all over Israel and its citizens are in bomb shelters. But tomorrow or in a week, they will be out of them, and Gaza will still be around with HAMAS still running the show, bragging about still being around and plotting the next such set of attacks on Israel. That’s how it always goes. Israel won’t flatten Gaza. Israel willingly, under non-stop pressure from George W. Bush, gave Gaza to HAMAS. And then, under the non-stop pressure from the father of Arab Spring and free elections for barbarians (George W. Bush, again), allowed Gaza to elect HAMAS. And, so, this problem will never go away. These Palestinians support HAMAS, which they proudly elected. They now occupy Gaza. And unless, Israel has the guts to flatten Gaza, this problem will keep festering, recurring, and will only get worse over time.
Remember when Israel went into Gaza over the HAMAS kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit? Everyone told me I should cheer because Israel was finally going to defeat HAMAS. Really? It’s still here, and as I warned on this site then, the cheers are misplaced. I predicted that eventually Israel would pull out of Gaza, after several Israeli soldiers’ lives were lost, and HAMAS would declare victory. That’s exactly what happened, and Israel traded over a thousand Islamic terrorists for Shalit in the end. Read my 2008 column, “Don’t Get Too Excited About the Phony Baloney Israeli “War” v. HAMAS.” Everything I said would happen did, and nearly everything I said would happen with that “war” v. HAMAS will happen with this “war” v. HAMAS. Different Israeli Prime Minister, same deal. I’ve written so many columns like this over the years because Israel v. HAMAS is “Groundhog Day.” Same thing over and over again, same bad results.
You think Israel is going to go in and flatten HAMAS and Gaza this time? Think again. It won’t and it doesn’t have the guts. It worries too much about the international community and U.S. calls for “restraint” and condemnations of “disproportionate response” (this has been the verbatim lingua franca for Israel with every U.S. Prez–Obama, Bush before him, and so on). And, so, the rocket attacks–which have gone on daily for years (but the media doesn’t report them)–will continue. The problem will fester. Because Israel–like the rest of the West which holds it back–is too humane in the face of evil.
So your cheering is for naught. The rocket attacks will continue as they always have. There will be more kidnappings and murders of Israeli teens. and things will only get worse. When you have a cancer that’s invaded your hand, you do all you can to eliminate the cancer completely or it keeps growing and you die. You don’t use restraint and worry about “disproportionate response” and you don’t say, well, I can live with the cancer’s growth, so I will retreat. But Israel always eventually retreats, as it did repeatedly over the years with HAMAS, as it did in the meaningless Israel-Hezbollah War of 2006 from which it retreated after spilling Israeli blood for nothing and allowing Hezbollah to remain in control of South Lebanon.
What is different this time? The rockets over Tel Aviv? Won’t make a difference. The Tel Avivniks are still liberals like New Yorkers. They still won’t support flattening Gaza. And the Israelis will never do it. Because only America is allowed to flatten Nazis. Israel must live with Nazis all over and from within. And just sit there and take it, despite a few bombings and invasions for show and for videos.
A few weeks from now, HAMAS will declare victory as it always does and Israel will have gone home with its tail between its legs. And it will only embolden HAMAS and encourage the development of rockets that will go further.
Pray for the safety of the people of Israel in bomb shelters. And realize that because Israel won’t flatten Gaza and the international community won’t stand for it, the visits and stays in bomb shelters will only increase in the future as sitting ducks continue to sit and not eliminate those shooting at them. Israel is lucky. It has Iron Dome, the system which shoots down and destroys most rockets while they are still in the air. But this is a crutch and won’t save Israel ultimately because it is allowing the problem to grow instead of nipping it in the bud (which has long since sprouted into a blooming deadly flower).
Israel’s real wars–in which its goal was to soundly and mercilessly defeat the enemy–are over and have been for decades. And soon that will be the reason Israel is over.
Snakes bite. It’s what they do. You can’t live with a poisonous snake. You have to kill it.
*** UPDATE – Correction: As many readers pointed out, Yogi Berra is still alive. Apologies to Yogi. Glad you’re still with us. To paraphrase Mark Twain, news of your death was highly exaggerated (at least by me).***
Tags: Gaza, HAMAS missiles, HAMAS rockets, Islam, Israel, Jews, Jihad
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/528916/israeli-rocket-defense-system-is-failing-expert-analysts-say/
Dakuan on July 11, 2014 at 9:39 am