For Gaza - Peace or Devastation

Today a bus in Tel Aviv blew up injuring as many as 16 innocent people by one count. Israeli sources are saying that it was a via a bomb planted on the bus. What was Hamas reaction? Approval. What was the reaction in the Arab Street? Great joy… as Palestinian mothers handed out candy to children. This is the people we are trying to make peace with.

I am so tired of the apologists who say that this is not the mainstream. I have yet to see that mainstream. Where is the Arab man in the street that has condemned it… or expressed sorrow for the innocent victims and their families? I have not seen a single Arab man in the street condemn it. This is the kind of enemy we are fighting. And I am tired of hearing that the joy expressed at the bombing of a bus full of Jews is only from a small minority.

I haven’t heard one word from any one of them expressing sorrow for that bus bombing.

That said, I still believe that the average Palestinian probably would just as soon make peace with us. Not because they love us. But because they are just plain sick and tired of war. They want to simply get on with their lives.

That they still hate us is abundantly clear and is not going to change. As long as Israel has to take the kind of defensive measures being taken in Gaza, their anger will only increase. And the Hamas leadership in Gaza capitalizes on that anger to perpetuate the status quo… refusing to make any kind of peace with Israel.

Meanwhile the war goes on and the dangers of an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza looms large. I do not want to see that happen. I’m sure that is true for every single Jew in the world that cares about the shedding of Jewish blood. Including Israel’s Prime Minster Netanyahu. We all want to see a peaceful resolution to the current conflict.

The problem is – and I’m sure that this is part of the Prime Mister’s calculus - if we don’t  ‘finish the job’  we will have gained very little. Hamas will replenish their arms – probably with even more deadly weapons supplied by Iran and smuggled in to Gaza. They will eventually resume sending rockets into Israel.

These people will not stop until they get what they want: A Jew free Palestine. That is clearly their objective. What Israel is doing now is just getting them angrier and more determined than ever to reach that goal. All this bombing has just ‘hardened their hearts’.

Some would rhetorically ask, “Was it worth it?” “Did we really gain anything here but more hatred?” Perhaps we shouldn’t have done this. Maybe we should have just left things alone. After all their rockets rarely if ever killed anyone.

The problem is that no country should stand by and allow a hostile neighbor to keep firing rockets at them. One of them may eventually hit a dense population center and kill many people. Even Israel’s ‘Iron Dome Defense System’ is not fool proof. 10 to 20% of those rockets get through the system.  And we now know their range includes both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Israel had no choice but to do something. Operation “Pillar of Cloud” which is what the current military offensive is called had to be implemented.

What about the fact that we will just make them angrier by all of this? I don’t think it really makes any difference at this point - if it ever did. Islamists like Hamas take great pride and joy and killing Jews. Nothing will change that. Getting them angrier does make make their resolve greater. But their hostile actions against us won’t increase any more that it is now. I think they are at maximum force – to the best of their ability.

Israeli leaders realize that they may have to ‘finish the job’ by invading Gaza with ground troops. That type of escalation is a very unpopular option. The word will not approve of that - as it does approve of what Israel is doing now. Not that I care so much about what Europe thinks. But the US government will not approve either. And most importantly the majority of the Israeli people don’t approve. They do not want to see the kind of bloodshed that could very easily result with that kind of action.

The problem is, we can’t leave things as they are now. My own thoughts on the matter is that Israel should continue bombing hard targets in Gaza. They should continue to try and avoid civilian casualties as much as possible - but basically bomb Gaza into the stone age. Destroy their infrastructure. Bring Hamas to their knees. Let the Palestinian residents of Gaza see what their leaders policies have wrought. That will certainly be on their minds after such devastation, despite blaming Israel for actually doing it.

Will this make them even angrier at Israel? Of course it will. To that I say, “So what?!”

Let them be mad… they are mad at us anyway. Enough to keep attacking us over the years with suicide bombers, rocket fire, and all manner of terrorism. They have been relentless because of their anger with us. The anger resulting with the kind of devastation I am talking about won’t change that. They will hate us to the max. But they will no longer be able to do anything about it. They will be destroyed as a nation, albeit very much alive as individuals.

I envision a sort of surrender to the victors ala Japan to the US at the end of WWII. Israel will dictate the terms of surrender. The terms being that they stop trying to kill us and clean out Palestine of Jews. Let us live. And we will let you live. That’s the deal. 

And then Israel helps them build a nation. One that requires peaceful relations with us. We can do it in the same way the Marshall Plan did it with Germany. It was rebuilt as a nation with no military.

Palestinians may not like it and hate us more then ever. But they will have no choice but to work with us if they want to rebuild from their ashes. They will know that Israel will never relinquish their right to the land of Israel and that it has the power to destroy nations in order to keep it. And we will do it again at the slightest provocation. It’s their choice: Live in peace and prosperity with the Jewish people as your neighbors or get reduced to rubble. 

As I write this post, I have just heard a news bulletin that a cease fire has been accepted by both sides. I hope that’s true. Thank God there will be no troop invasion. I hope that this agreement is long term. If no more rockets are fired into Israel from Gaza, it will have all been worth it. But if not, then the next time, I think Israel ought to bring them to their knees along the lines I suggest.