I simply do not understand the rationale on display here. Hamas is a militant and highly popular social movement within the Palestinian Territories. Not only is not going to stop its terrorist activities, but it couldn't if it wanted to. Individual militants will do as they please, and all it takes for a new conflict to erupt is for one militant to be provoked into an act of terrorism. This is what happens when you foster a culture of violence and martyrdom. Hamas is a band of radical ideologues, and nothing Israel can do, short of blinking out of existence, will change that. Imagine if the Republicans had their own armed wing and felt at liberty to enforce their vision. Do you think they would answer to any kind of reason or appeal? No...they would not.
So, this is my question for those of you who are critical of Israel's role in all of this: What would you have Israel do?
Really, what would you have Israel do?
All you ever talk about is what Israel should not do. You say Israel should not launch a ground invasion. You say Israel should not drop bombs on terrorist targets. You say Israel should not assassinate the Hamas leadership. You say Israel should not control the Palestinian borders and airspace.
Sure, great, but not doing any of that means Hamas will continue to terrorize the Israeli people. The vast majority of Israelis support the current offensive in Gaza. Why? Because they don't like getting rained on by rockets every day. Do you really think they are being unreasonable about it? Are the Israelis wrong to want to protect themselves?
There is an ugly minority among the these people who thinks that Israel simply should not exist at all. For them, I'm sure the answer would be that, yes, the Israelis should just let themselves be killed until they decide to give Hamas everything it wants. These people are either Hamas partisans, or they are just plain stupid.
But the greater part of you who are critical of Israel do not feel that way. You support Israel's right to exist, and simply disagree with its policy toward the Palestinians. You are the ones who I want to hear from. What should Israel do?
Israel cannot simply put away its airplanes and smart bombs to fight Hamas the way Hamas has fought Israel, with guns, rocks, indiscriminate missiles, and suicide bombs. Nor can Israel suspend its policy of preserving and protecting life wherever possible—even on the enemy's side—in favor of exploiting every opportunity to attack and kill Palestinians indiscriminately, just as Palestinian terrorists do against Israel.
I really wish Hamas would stop hiding weapons in homes and schools, and stop using human shields to protect themselves. I bet the Israelis wish that even more than I do. I wish Hamas would respect the rules of warfare, and come out to engage the Israelis in a frontal assault. Then this whole thing would be over in about twelve minutes, and the two peoples could live in peace.
Give credit to Hamas: They know exactly how to run a guerrilla campaign. By provoking the Israelis and then drawing civilians into the conflict, world opinion turns against the Jewish state decisively, and people like me are left to throw up our hands in exasperation.
So what should Israel do? Diplomacy has failed and will continue to fail so long as Hamas remains radical. These stopgap truces never last because Hamas does not respect them. The reason there is no peace here is that the people who lead the Palestinians don't want peace. Even if Israel were to make amends in every case where it is clearly in the wrong—such as by dismantling all of the nascent settlements in Palestinian territory and making reparations to those who lost land or business—it would not be enough, because Hamas' goal is not to achieve an advantageous treaty, but to create a world where Israel either does not exist or is under Islamic rule.
How easily we forget that progressivism is opposed to the worldview of fundamentalist religion, when that religion becomes Islam instead of Christianity. How easily we forget that many of us would be imprisoned, beaten, or killed for our way of life in the society that Hamas is building, while in Israel we could live as freely as we do here in America. How easily we forget that the Palestinian people, most of whom crave a lasting peace as fervently as most of the Israelis do, support Hamas because Hamas has made the message of radicalism a palatable one. Hamas has earned the benefit of the doubt of the Palestinian people, by making itself into the glue of Palestinian society by providing leadership and civic structure. It's not as though Hamas is wantonly evil; it's just that Hamas' behavior with regard to Israel is unacceptable. How easily we forget that too.
And it's not just Hamas. There are many other militant groups in the Palestinian Territories, and elsewhere in the Middle East, whose unifying purpose is to make Israel an Islamic state. Don't ask why; we know why: It's the same reason that any religiously motivated group of people wants to dictate how others live their lives. That's just what religion is.
So, if you please...I would really like to know: What would you have Israel do?