Gaza: Hamas Wants To Destroy Israel
A Palestinian confronts an Israeli soldier, left, during a demonstration against Israeli military action in Gaza, near the West Bank town of Nablus, July 14. Israel began its campaign against militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza last Tuesday, saying it was responding to heavy rocket fire from the densely populated territory. As of last Friday, Israel had launched more than 1,300 airstrikes since then, while Palestinian militants launched nearly 1,000 rockets at Israel. AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh
A recent Wall Street Journal contained a very poignant article reminding us of the true nature of the enemy we face in international terrorist organizations such as Hamas in Gaza. For reasons known only to the demented leadership of Hamas, in the past week or so they have resumed bombarding Israel’s neighborhoods with indiscriminate rocket attacks on civilian areas. As might be expected, Israel has struck back hard, but hardly in kind.
In order to minimize civilian casualties on the Palestinian side, Israeli operatives actually make warning telephone calls to the civilians living (or planted) in targeted buildings used by the militant forces of Hamas (or in buildings in the proximity of a Hamas rocket launching complex) about an impending attack on that building hours before the attack — to the effect, “The building you are in is scheduled to be destroyed in six hours. To save your lives and those of your family’s, leave that building before it is destroyed in … six hours.”
In interviews with those same occupants after the attacks in which casualties were heavy, the survivors said they really believed that the Israelis would know the building was still occupied and would not carry out their threats. Of course, this all was revealed in the usual staged interview scene of distraught Arab women rocking their bodies back and forth while wailing loudly and beating their breasts in mourning their losses. I say this, not to make light of their legitimate losses, but such displays should be aimed directly at Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization responsible for their losses.
Israeli losses in the Hamas rocket attacks have been light — compared to those of Hamas — in Israel’s retaliatory raids, because of the amazing success of Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile defense system. This relatively new system, developed by the Israelis out of necessity (and jointly funded with the U.S.), picks up on radar incoming Hamas rockets shortly after their launch, rapidly computes the intercept parameters, and automatically launches the interceptor rocket which destroys the attacking rocket in the air well short of its map. It’s just another chilling reminder that our fanatical Islamist enemy loves death more than life.
And it’s appropriate to recall the words of one of Israel’s most revered leaders, former prime minister Golda Meir: “There will be peace in the Middle East only when the Palestinians begin to love their children more than they hate Israel.”
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