Operation Cast Lead: Israel Hits Hamas

Israel apparently decided that enough was enough, and launched a series of coordinated strikes against Hamas in Gaza. As you know, I predicted back at the start of the so-called 'ceasefire that an Israel-Hamas war was just around the corner. Unfortunately,given who's in charge of Israel at the moment, I fear that it will be a half effort at best and at worst involve the Israelis expending blood and treasure merely to hand Gaza over to Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah.

Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to be wrong about this.

Operation Cast Lead, a response to the latest of a number of Hamas rocket barrages against Southern Israel involved the Israeli air force using around 150 Israeli bombers and helicopters against over 100 targets.

The strikes were aimed at Hamas military targets, and obviously caught the Green Hats by surprise.The Israeli press had previously reported that Israel's security cabinet had decided against an operation at this time.

Because of that, a number of Hamas commanders were caught out in the open. The Israelis hit a 'graduation ceremony' for Hamas fighters that had heavy attendance from Hamas brass at the parade ground at their command headquarters in Gaza City, and that proved to be a wonderfully target rich environment.

Another series of raids hit a network of Hamas tunnels near the Philadelphi corridor, between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. This is the site of a number of Hamas smuggling tunnels, and was apparently also the base for a Hamas reserve force and military supplies, including gasoline stocks.Those tunnels are now history,( along with a lot of the Hamas fighters who were stationed there) with the beneficial result of cutting off Hamas' pipeline for smuggled arms from Iran via Egyptian Sinai.

Also destroyed in a new raid this morning was one of Hamas's main security compounds in Gaza City, including Seraya prison in downtown Gaza. Apparently the local AP office also suffered some damage, which I can only refer to as poetic justice, considering how they've been shilling for Hamas for years.

Other targets in today's raids so far include the Al Aqsa TV station used by Hamas.
The studio building was destroyed, but the station is apparently still on the air with a mobile unit....which leads to the question, what kind of war is Israel waging if they don't even cut off electricity to their enemies?

Not only that, but the oafish Ehud Barak, Israel's defense minister is not only allowing humanitarian aid through ( much of will be seized by Hamas for its fighters and loyalists) but actually allowing injured Gazans to come across the border to Israel for medical aid.

In contrast, a crowd of Palestinians trying to get out of Gaza via Egypt was actually subjected to machine gun fire by Egyptian troops. You certainly won't see that on CNN..but just imagine if Israel had done it.

So far, Hamas casualties stand at about 280 dead, 15 of whom are estimated to be civilians...which is not bad at all considering how Hamas hides among non-combatants and uses them as human shields.

So, where is this designed to end? I'm already hearing murmurings about an 'exit strategy' and 'final goals'.

Such questions are pure PR and simply ignore reality. Even many Israeli commentators seem prepared to ignore what's in front of their eyes.

According to Tzipi Livni, she's 'in close connection' with Condi Rice and confirms that Israelis trying to wage a kinder,gentler war..which of course is impossible. She wasn't even honest enough to admit that destroying Hamas would be a legitimate war goal and said frankly that Israel has no plans to 're-occupy' Gaza, which makes me wonder what this is all about then. Are Olmert and company merely going to destroy Hamas in order to hand Gaza over to Fatah and Abbas?

Based on the Israeli government we're talking about I think that's the plan, and it was likely co-ordinated not only with the Bush Administration but with Egypt's Hosni Mubarak when Livni met with him last week - Mubarak has no love whatsoever for Hamas, an Iranian proxy and an offshoot of Egypt's radical Muslim Brotherhood.

If I'm right and that's what the Olmert government has planned, they are beyond foolhardy.

They will get absolutely no love from the Muslim world or from the EU for this, simply because it's Israel. As for the Palestinians, their genocidal hatred of Jews isn't going to change one iota. To them, the hated Jews will have just participated in overthrowing a democratically elected Hamas government most of them voted in to install a corrupt and despised Fatah overlord...and Abbas' reaction for the free gift of all this territory he wasn't able to hang onto even with the benefit of millions of dollars of US military aid isn't going to be gratitude. He will simply want more, and a Jew-free corridor through southern Israel to connect to two halves of his lil' reichlet as well.That's assuming Gaza's Arabs don't chase him and and friends out again with a new pro-Hamas revolt....a very likely scenario given the clan makeup of Palestinian society.

Nor will it end the threat to Israel's south in the long run. Even if Abbas manages to hang on for a while ( and remember, once he's out of the picture there's no telling who will take over), the radical elements in Fatah will insist on a military build up to prosecute the War Against the Jews.

Rather than spilling blood doing Abbas' and Condi Rice's dirty work, the IDF should eliminate the threat to its south once and for all. That means driving Hamas out of Gaza for good by exterminating its fighters and leadership.

It also means blowing the Egyptian border fence 'by accident' or allowing Hamas to do it and facilitating as many of Gaza's inmates escaping the lunatic asylum into Egypt as you can...after which you reseal the area and refuse to allow them back in. Finally, you pack most of the rest off to the Palestinian occupied areas in Judea and Samaria ( AKA the West Bank), annex Gaza to Israel permanently and move the Jews back in. You don't hand it over to Fatah and Abbas 'for peace'.

The UN, the EU and the Arab world will of course denounce this 'theft of Arab land.' But considering that's how a lot of them feel about all of Israel anyway, permanent quiet on Israel's southern front is probably worth the diplomatic fallout. That's the only way to avoid having to deal with the same problem again in a few years. Frankly, it should have been done years ago.

The Jews will change Gaza into a garden again, and Gaza City from a terrorist armpit swimming in its own sewage into a beach resort and high tech trade center.

The reason the war against Israel's civilians continues is because the Palestinians have yet to experience any major consequences for it,and the world mostly continues to enable their horrific behavior. Losing Gaza might just make like minded jihadist Palestinians in Judea and Samaria take a good look at what happened to Gaza and realize that peace with Israel might prevent the same thing from happening to them.