Hamas-Israeli Fighting
Mike Walker
All,
No attempt here to lay blame for the root causes of the extremely complex Palestinian-Israeli issue in the Middle East.
However, the blame for the December 2008 fighting can be laid clearly at the feet of Hamas.
On 14 December 2008, during a celebration of the 21st anniversary of the creation of Hamas, its leaders unilaterally announced that they expected the ceasefire brokered by Egypt would expire on the 19 December deadline.
It should be remembered that Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. The extremist Sunni Muslim Brotherhood is also the forebearer of al Qaeda.
Israel responded with a plea to extend the ceasefire but warned it would not tolerate renewed attacks on Israel.
The ceasefire had not worked as desired for either side, as have virtually all the preceding agreements, but it did effectively contain the violence between Hamas and Israel to a "tit-for-tat" level.
Three days later, on 17 December, Hamas fired 20 rockets at Israeli civilian targets.
On 18 December Hamas formally declared that the ceasefire would end the next day, Friday 19 December 2008. To emphasize the point they fired another 14 missiles at Israeli civilian targets.
On Saturday 27 December Israel responded with large scale strikes against Hamas soldiers and the Hamas military infrastructure. As a veteran of the war in Iraq, I know that we always strove to keep a standoff distance between our forces and civilians in order to protect them from the fighting.
I also know that Hamas, like al Qaeda in Iraq, deliberately places its military weaponry, supplies, command and control facilities, etc, in as close a proximity to the civilian population as possible.
Hamas, like al Qaeda in Iraq, does this in order to create the "big lie" that will be broadcast around the world that the Israelis are targeting innocent civilians.
As an aside, as a long as the media continues to allow the "big lie" to be aired without condemnation, the numbers of innocent civilians killed in modern wars will only continue to increase.
The modern media has done a great disservice in recklessly blurring the line between legitimate targeting of the military and the unconscionable deliberate targeting/inclusion of civilians by extremists in their operations.
Where this fighting will lead is anyone's guess. I would keep an keen eye on Hezbollah in Lebanon for indicators of a possible wider war.
Israel miscalculated the strength and willingness of Hezbollah to fight a major campaign in 2006.
It appears Hamas has miscalculated by ending the ceasefire and stepping up attacks on an Israel that appears prepared and willing to fight a major campaign against them in 2008.
Semper Fi,
Mike
