I have been trying to understand what Hamas’ strategic objective is but I’m having some trouble.

For months, hundreds of Qassam rockets have been launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel. The Qassams are primitive homemade rockets that represent a cost of about $200 a rocket and are dangerous to make. Someone in the Gaza strip has invested thousands of dollars and risked several people’s lives to support this activity (the people in the Gaza Strip barely have enough money to feed themselves). Given the cost and that this has been going on for months, it’s safe to say that the Hamas government is sanctioning this activity. Hamas must have a motivation. I’ve been going through some possibilities:

1) Hamas hopes to make life so miserable in Israel from constant random bombardment that the Jews will give up and leave.
2) Hamas desires an Israel over-reaction that will trigger a response by European and/or American moonbats.
3) The people behind the rockets are motivated by blind irrational hatred. Hamas shoots Qassams into Israel because they can, regardless of the consequences.

Explanation 1) is ridiculous. Long before the Israelis would throw in the sponge and leave the Middle East, they would invoke a scorched earth tactic against Hamas. Triggering such an Israeli reaction is obviously not a clever strategy.

Explanation 2) is not reasonable. Nobody counts on moonbats to do anything except make fools out of themselves. Did the moonbats save Saddam Hussein (they sure wanted to!)? Nobody with any intelligence counts on moonbats coming to the rescue.

Explanation 3) is a reasonable explanation for individual Palestinians who have gone insane with hatred but this is not a reasonable explanation for an entire government.

I know the answer must be obvious but I can’t see it.