For Hamas ceasefires are just tactical
and Western pressure on Israel makes it possible.
Last week’s ceasefire between Israel and Hamas prompted a number of similarly themed observations.
https://twitter.com/MsIntervention/status/494995494230171650
Similar tweets appeared here and here and here and here.
What did Hamas gain by agreeing to the ceasefire to the terms of Thursday night’s ceasefire when it rejected the same terms more than two weeks earlier? What did it gain by continuing to lose fighters and resources?
It now appears, as Elder of Ziyon shows, that the reason Hamas agreed initially to the ceasefire was to carry out Friday’s attack that killed three Israeli soldiers.
Clearly the ceasefire provided the opportunity Hamas wanted to perform this operation. Their acceptance of the cease-fire – including the terms that IDF soldiers can keep their positions, which Hamas knew were near a hidden tunnel entrance – can only be described as a well-planned ruse for this attack, Hamas’ most sought-after prize. These were not conditions that Hamas would normally accept.
Hamas’ claim that this occurred before the ceasefire is a lie, as the reports of heavy clashes in Rafah all started at 9:30, not 7:30 as Hamas says.
John Kerry said that the ceasefire was a “moment of opportunity.” Hamas obviously agreed.
Today's front page http://t.co/7pb2WANmx4 pic.twitter.com/9C8e6GDTIx
— New York Post (@nypost) August 3, 2014
I suspect that this is why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his frustration with the administration:
Netanyahu told Shapiro the Obama administration was “not to ever second-guess me again” and that Washington should trust his judgment on how to deal with Hamas, according to people familiar with the conversation. Netanyahu added that he now “expected” the US and other countries to fully support Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to those familiar with the call. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter by name.
They said Netanyahu made similar points to US Secretary of State John Kerry, who himself denounced the attack as “outrageous,” saying it was an affront to assurances to respect the ceasefire given to the United States and United Nations, which brokered the truce.
#Hamas has violated all 7 attempts to achieve cease fire (most of them he initiated, calling them… http://t.co/g8viCHMBvN
— Israel in SF (@IsraelinSF) August 3, 2014
There comes a point where it’s absurd to keep on insisting that Israel has to take greater care to avoid harming civilians when the different measures that Israel takes to do so, result in strengthening Hamas. Israel gives up the element of surprise by warning residents to leave areas that it has targeted, it has cancelled attacks and agreed to ceasefires. Each an every one of these actions are taken to protect civilians. Hamas doesn’t care. And the morally blind diplomats who think that Israel needs to show more restraint are enabling Hamas.
In his columnFriday, Clueless in Gaza, Charles Krauthammer makes this argument:
Kerry seems not to understand that the Arab League backed the Egyptian cease-fire-in-place, which would have left Hamas weak and isolated, to ensure that Hamas didn’t emerge from this war strengthened and enhanced.
Why didn’t Kerry just stay home and declare unequivocal U.S. support for the Egyptian/Arab League plan? Instead, he flew off to Paris and sent Jerusalem a package of victories for Hamas: lifting the blockade from Egypt, opening the border with Israel, showering millions of foreign cash to pay the salaries of the 43,000 (!) government workers that the near-insolvent Hamas cannot.
Krauthammer concludes:
Whatever his intent, Kerry legitimized Hamas’s war criminality. Which makes his advocacy of Hamas’s terms not just a strategic blunder — enhancing a U.S.-designated terrorist group just when a wall-to-wall Arab front wants to see it gone — but a moral disgrace.
Friday’s ambush that killed three IDF soldiers should have changed everything. An acknowledgement by the UN, the United States and the world that Hamas does not play by the rules and that leaving Hamas to its own devices it will only sow more mayhem, not bring peace. It’s time to let Israel do its job of protecting its citizens. Without the second guessing.
[Photo: MEMRITVVideos / YouTube ]
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Comments
http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2014/08/04/the-key-to-a-lasting-middle-east-peace-is-total-victory-n1873681
While I don’t concur with everything he says, he’s got the conclusion right.
You win. You DO NOT fight to a draw, or the first time your enemy finds it in their interest to come to the table.
It is well known that ANYTHING Hamas says is ‘just tactical’. You can tell they are lying by the fact that their mouth is moving.
Hamas are animals that consider that schools, hospitals, and civilian residential areas are ‘safe weapons depots, that can not be attacked’ and ‘military fall-back positions for re-grouping / re-arming’.
Why is ANYONE still listening to a word they say ?
H – Hiding
A – Among
M – Minors (or Mosks, Minarets, Maniacs, Media)
A – And
S – Schools
This is going to sound like Mr. Miyagi – Karate Kid stuff, but it’s true, so there it goes:
Fighting is never good. Even if you win the fight, that comes at a high cost. Always.
So it’s better to avoid conflict.
But you can’t always avoid conflict. Sometimes you’ll find somebody so stupid or so violent, or both, that they will want to fight you. Just because they’re stupid.
When that happens, you don’t fight half way. You strike with all your might to stop the other part right away. There’s no mercy. You showed mercy when you tried to avoid the fight. And anyways, stupid sees mercy as a weakness, not a sign of moral superiority.
So, if stupid wants to fight, you obliterate stupid. You don’t ask permission. You show stupid that there’s no such thing as fighting with you, if you have the means of course.
Israel has the means.
They need to crush Hamas to where they’ll need 10 years to regroup and reorganize. If that ever happens again, crushed them again like roaches.
Mercy don’t keep hateful stupid away. Fear does.
Definitely “Karate Kid” stuff, but with a clear ring of truth to it.
Quick analogy: The old Chinese sword forms usually start with the sword in its sheath; it’s not drawn until part-way through the form. This, among other reasons, is to emphasize that as a practitioner/master of martial arts, one has a duty/obligation to show mercy and temperance to non-practitioners. In a lot of forms, the magic number is three: three incoming attacks blocked/deflected and countered before the sword comes out. Three chances for the attacker to realize he’s in over his head and withdraw before the practitioner/master brings deadly force to bear.
My martial arts instructor (actually, my instructor’s instructor) once told us (paraphrasing; it was a while ago):
Israel at this point has gone beyond “reasonable.” She’s gone beyond “expected.” She’s far past avoidance, de-escalation, making peace, and damage control (collateral and otherwise). She’s literally done everything short of meekly submitting to extermination – which nobody can reasonably expect.
So, while I expect Israel will keep the moral high ground and continue to try to find ways to de-escalate and make peace, I expect Hamas will not leave any other options. Therefore, I expect Israel to fight. And in the long run, I expect her to win.
I shall refrain from commenting on this as some parts of the US legal system expects a defender to be as stupidly hafadzed as the legacy media and most politicians expect Israel to be.
Yup. A real loud “no comment”. Nuthen to say. Nope. Not at all.
Well, thank you for spending our electrons to share that with us.
The 1400 war against the non-Muslim world continues. Pauses, but never cessation, are permitted but only if the Muslim can gain an advantage such as regrouping or re-arming. These are often called hudnas. The point to remember is that these are only done if the Muslim benefits.
Valerie Jarrett disagrees and thinks that Israel should stop attacking women and children. But yet the President is a huge(!) supporter of Israel. I have no idea how American Jews could love Israel and support Obama. It makes no sense at all.
Hamas is acting exactly according to its founding document, the Hamas Covenant. Under the terms of that Covenant Hamas rejects the notion, not only of negotiation, but states that nobody, nobody, not an outside power nor an elected official in the area, has the power to order a cease-fire or peace agreement.
http://middleeast.about.com/od/palestinepalestinians/a/me080106b_5.htm
This document is a live document which Hamas is fulfilling. This document embraces the notion of war against civilians, and genocide., and agreeing to a cease-fire only for the purpose of re-loading.
They are doing exactly what they said they would do.
TWO Islamist terror attacks in Israel today:
http://therightscoop.com/another-terrorist-attack-in-jerusalem-leaves-idf-soldier-in-serious-condition/
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/08/breaking-terror-attack-in-jerusalem-tractor-driven-into-bus/
Islam/Mohammedanism is the problem – 99% of all terrorist organizations listed by the US State Department are Mohammedan.
Boko Haram and ISIS are not yet listed despite their daily atrocities and aggression.
5 churches were attacked by the despicable Boko Haram yesterday.
If death cults worship death, and Hamas is a death cult, doesn’t that make Israel Hamas’ god? Shouldn’t Hamas worship Israel?
I remember during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, how every day the UN called for another ceasefire, Israel would immediately agree and comply, and then the next day the fighting began again, after the PLO had time to regroup and rest. I remember the holy Lubavitcher Rebbe screaming at the stupid Israeli government for accepting all these ceasefires. He said Haig’s resignation had given them a very narrow window of opportunity to destroy the PLO, and they needed to get on with it, invade Tyre (rather than going around it as they did), get the mission done, and get out of there before a new Secretary of State could be confirmed. All those ceasefires not only gave the enemy time to recover and prepare for more fighting, but dragged the whole thing out to where it would become impossible to achieve. I recall him admonishing Simcha Erlich, who was acting Prime Minister at the time, that if he loved his seat so much he should take it home and sit in it there to his heart’s content, and let the army do its job. How prophetic the Rebbe proved to be, as he usually did.