Turn the Screws on Iran, but Ease Pressure on Hamas?
On Tuesday morning a Qassam rocket fired from Gaza struck near a kindergarten in a kibbutz outside Ashkelon, the Israeli coastal city north of the Strip. A fourteen-year-old girl was injured and four other people were treated for shock. The attack was part of a recent escalation in Gaza terror that included ten mortars fired on Monday.
Although shelling from Gaza is down since Israel’s Operation Cast Lead almost two years ago, it has by no means stopped, with over 200 missiles, rockets, and mortars fired in 2010. The shelling and other terror activity comes from Hamas, which rules Gaza, and other terror groups that have roosted there including the al-Qaeda-linked Army of Islam.
Gaza, then, is comparable to Iran albeit on a much smaller scale: a belligerent polity run by Islamic extremists. Yet the world relates to the two polities very differently.
For instance, earlier former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, now envoy of the Middle East Quartet, decried what he called the “mistaken view … that if Gaza is isolated, somehow Hamas is weakened.” He called for “expanding not just humanitarian provisions to Gaza but also reconstruction, water, sanitation, and electricity capacity as well.”
His words abound with ironies. One is that Gaza is already awash in international assistance; for instance, in the wake of last May’s Gaza flotilla incident, President Obama pledged a $400-million package to the West Bank and Gaza. Israel too, after that incident, bowed to worldwide demands and almost totally lifted its “siege” of the Strip.
That “siege” had put limited economic pressure on the Hamas regime by preventing certain kinds of goods, particularly those like cement and steel that have military uses, from crossing into Gaza from Israel.
Meanwhile, various reports (here and here, for instance) have highlighted that, at least in some regards, Gaza is actually thriving, with well-stocked shelves and shiny shopping malls.
Also ironic is that Blair’s Britain, when under the German bombardment in World War II, did not react by calling for generous international aid to Germany.
This is a very accurate revelation of a striking hypocrisy. The difference in the situation, of course, is that in Gaza live “Palestinians,” people who have to be supplied, maintained, and pampered at all times and at all costs, no matter what the reality on the ground.
There are Iranians, and then there are the Ayatollahs. What you mean refers to the Ayatollahs. Think about it that way, and you will have Iranians on your side.
“Although shelling from Gaza is down since Israel’s Operation Cast Lead almost two years ago, it has by no means stopped, with over 200 missiles, rockets, and mortars fired in 2010.”
Doesn’t sound like a lot, unless you’re on the receiving end of these rockets. There will be no peace in that part of the world unless Hamas and Hezbollah are destroyed. That’s the plain, simple, fact. Both organizations are committed to the destruction of Israel, not to co-existing with Israel. As long as they’re around, there will be no peace. People in both Europe and the liberals in the United States need to understand that, now, before Iran gets a nuclear weapon and gives it to one of these terrorist organizations.
Peace is impossible in the Middle East until the Islamic extremists are either put into their graves or jailed. In the meantime, the Israelis must close themselves off from them. That is the more practical course of action. The other option would require the killing of an unbelievably high number of fanatics.
“Peace is impossible in the Middle East
until the Islamic extremists are either put into their graves or jailed.”Fixed that for you.
The end game for the Arabs, is the destruction of Israel. A Palestinian state will be used as a base, to launch the “final” assault on Israel. There will be NO peace between the Israelis and the Arabs. The world’s diplomats know this fact, but continue the charade of “peace” talks.
Only the usual fawning mainstream-media islamophiles could still consider Tony Blair to have any understanding of jihad and how it threatens the whole non-muslim civilized world. Blair claims to read the 7th Century bedouin Mein Kampf every day; and yet one has to wonder what on Earth he has ever learned from all that alleged daily reading, when he opens his big mouth to “play theologian” and spew nonsense such as “We will not defeat extremism (and the fear it then produces in our societies) until we defeat its narrative. This narrative is Islam as a victim of the West, locked in an inevitable cultural conflict with it.” (Well, islam has defined itself in violent and intolerant opposition to all things and people non-muslim, be they Western or not; but facts cannot bother Tony Blair when he makes such asinine and ignorant assertions) “This narrative links justifiable sentiments (whether you agree with them or not)—anxiety about injustice to Palestinians, dissent over military action in Afghanistan or Iraq, anger about Kashmir or Chechnya, opposition to regimes supported by the West—with an unjustifiable narrative that defines Islam in a way that is contrary to its true teaching.”. (!!!!!)
The acceptable terror group vs the non-acceptable terror state has one goal- eviscerating Israel down to size.
Pretending that Hamas is not funded by Iran, that Hamas is not one of Iran’s twin terror spearheads-Hizbullah being the other-world leaders and their fellow travelers create monstrous distinctions between them.
Pretending that Hamas can be tamed-IF only Israel would give them ‘their’ land-fantasists play make believe with a genocidal terror gang.
To wit,if the end goal is to slice and dice Israel, by whatever means possible, it kind of makes sense to spout verbal gymnastics, causing (terror)distinctions without a difference.
Bastards…..
Blair was honored in Kosovo recently and it was not by Serbs. Blair’s advice for aid to Hamas sounds like Israel is getting the same treatment as the Serbs.
Excellent point about the Brits not sending aid packages to Hitler’s Germany. On the other hand, how in the world is Iran threatening Israel, Europe and the United States?