Israel continues to absorb terrorist attacks from Gaza, at the rate of 20 rockets over the last 25 hours.
The worst strike was in Ashdod, where an Iranian Grad Rocket hit a synagogue while the worshipers were at morning prayers. A number of people were injured, two of them seriously.
IAF aircraft hit seven Hamas security installations in Gaza early Friday morning, killing at least one Palestinian.
Again, this escalation was planned long in advance. My guess is that Hamas is attempting to provoke the Israelis into a massive response in advance of the 'Palestinian' attempt to get the UN to unilaterally declare them a state.
That's the choice Israelis faced with. Allow Hamas to continue to attack them and deny them their propaganda coup, or to respond the way any other nation would to protect their people. Either choice has its pros and cons, and I can certainly see the point in waiting until the UN business shakes out.
But if Israel is going to respond effectively, I think their best bet is to make it a massive and total response that will end the attacks from Gaza once and for all. That's going to mean completely destroying Hamas and their ilk in Gaza, annexing the Strip and transferring a lot of the population to Egypt or to the 'Palestinian' occupied areas of Judea and Samaria.
It's probably going to come to that eventually anyway.
I agree, however, I see no benefit in waiting until after the UN farce plays itself out. Should Hamas be allowed to continue killing Israelis or should they be dealt with? If I were in charge of Israeli security, I certainly would not want to have to tell an Israeli family their loved one died because we did not want Hamas to get a propaganda victory or that we placed you in grave danger because we did not want Hamas to get a propaganda victory.
ReplyDeleteSomething else to consider. Hamas and their primary backer of Iran pose a greater threat to Israel than Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan ever posed or ever could have posed to America. America's response to this was among other things to fire bomb Dresden and to nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I'm not necessarily saying this is what Israel should do. Israel today is not America of the early 1940s nor are Hamas and Iran Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan. Since Israel is different and its enemies are different, the strategies Israel uses to defeat its current enemies will likely be much different.
For that matter, America of the second decade of the 21st century is far different than America of the early 1940s. As such, prudent strategies it should pursue for its national security interests will also likely be much different than the policies that were pursued in WWII.
As an American, I get no pleasure in writing this. With the UN resolution upcoming on the formation of another Arab state, at the last moment if not before America is probably going to support it. I'm sure the Israelis are aware of this. As such, it is far better to eliminate as much of Hamas military capabilities as Israel can right now.
Since I think the Israelis are aware of this, this may have something to do with the high level meetings between Israeli and Chinese officials that took place recently. The Chinese are probably taking a "long view" on this. Without Israel as an ally during the Cold War America probably would have lost the Cold War. Right now America is virtually finished as a major world power. This leaves Russia and China virtually alone right now in terms of global power. As such, the Russians and the Chinese having succeeded in vanquishing America will now turn their attention to each other. China probably needs an ally of the caliber of Israel and frankly Israel has allot to offer China!!
Again, I hope I'm wrong about America supporting the formation of another Arab state at the expense of a stalwart ally and I hope I'm wrong about America being finished as a major world power.
Finally, it seems to me Israel should go after Hamas with every thing they have regardless of what the UN or the American government say or do. Hamas is not only a bitter enemy of Israel but they are a bitter enemy of America as well. Any weakening of Hamas is in our interest. America's best course of action is to stay out of Israel's way in this case. Are America's leaders smart enough to understand this? Are they to ideologically blind to grasp this concept that they should stay out of the way? I hope and pray the answers to these questions are yes and no respectively.