Here\’s a rundown of what has happened just in the last day (yes, it does seem like a Middle East version of “24”):
Egypt, filling the gaping void left by the Obama-led United States, has stepped in and proposed conditions for a truce. However, as pointed in Avi Issacharoff\’s article in the Times of Israel, the conditions put forth by Egypt would give hamas virtually nothing it demands, thus leaving it defeated and humiliated.
This, it should be noted, is the same Egypt which, like Israel, has refused to open its border with Gaza during this conflict, thus effectively penning in the Gaza population until it ends.
The lesson to be learned here is that Egypt\’s current leadership (which overthrew mohamed morsi, the Muslim brotherhood fanatic who became President only because of Barack Obama\’s bungling interference) would rather live in peace with Israel than facilitate hamas\’ war against the Jewish state. Very, very smart decision.
hamas, being far more invested in killing Jews than benefitting Palestinian Arabs, has rejected this peace overture, and has fired off another barrage of rockets into Israel.
These geniuses, therefore, have recommitted to shooting rockets into Israeli sovereign territory which Israel\’s Iron Dome defense system shoots down, and then having the launching sites bombarded and destroyed.
Let\’s also remember that those launching sites are almost always in civilian areas – which means that there will be plenty of dead Palestinian women and children to show to the world…which hamas maximizes by demanding that its civilians stay put, even after Israel warns that the sites will be destroyed (nothing like a women-and-children death count to titillate international media).
But, this time – in what seems to me a suprising turn of events – the world is far less critical of Israel\’s action than it has been in the past. Maybe it is the ISIS takeover of so much land in Syria and Iraq, maybe it is fear that hamas, as a similarly disposed organization, will eventually hook up with ISIS,I don\’t know. What I do know is that reproach for Israel\’s actions – at least at this point – is far less severe than it usually is.
I am pretty certain this “era of good (more accurately, less-negative) feeling” would end summarily if Israel starts a ground invasion. But that doesn\’t change the fact that, at present, Israel has a level of tacit support it usually would not enjoy.
There\’s the rundown. And what will happen next? The ball is in hamas\’ court.
My guess is that hamas\’s willingness to cave is in direct proportion to how many offensive weapons it has left. If history has taught us anything about Palestinian Arab offensive strategy, it is that they wage war until they run out of weapons to fire at Israel, then ask for/demand a truce…….which is more or less held to until they re-arm, at which point they go right back to waging war. That is the sad reality of this conflict.
Making a real peace – which requires scrapping the hamas charter and working with Israel – would immeasurably benefit all parties. Too bad the hamas lunatics have no interest in any such thing.
One other point: the “Iron Dome” defense system, which has now been shown to be amazingly effective in protecting Israeli lives, was a joint venture with the United States – US money and Israeli technology. The US, of course, will now benefit from the sharing of that technology, thus making our country that much safer as well.
This is well worth remembering the next time you hear someone ask why we give billions of dollars to Israel.
If you hear that question, I suggest you remind the person asking it about Iron Dome, and ask how many billions he/she thinks it is worth. Then remind that person of all the other technology shared between our two countries….and of the Middle East intelligence Israel provides to us as well – the kind of intelligence we do not and can not get from any other source.
The more you think about what Israel gives in relation to what it gets, the more you realize that Israel may well be the single biggest bargain we have in the world.
