Hamas Gets One Step Closer to Eliminating Israel

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="metadata" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span><a class="contributor_name" href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-08-29/contributors/daniel-gordis" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;">Daniel Gordis</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div> <div class="article_body" itemprop="articleBody" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The cease-fire is holding. The sirens have stopped, the bomb shelters are being closed, most of the reservists have returned home. This weekend, for the first time in months, Israelis (like Gazans) will finally be able to exhale.</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But the press, quite rightly, is reminding Israelis that peace is almost certainly not at hand. “Gaza war? Merely a blip on the Mideast radar,” <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.613068" rel="external" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;">Haaretz’s headline</a> read this morning.</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The two sides have battered each other into a stalemate. Both accepted terms their leaders insisted they would never abide. Civilians on both sides have suffered, both have buried loved ones. Both are exhausted, utterly spent. And on both sides, the leadership is trying to convince its “constituency” (one of which votes, while the other cannot) that the gains were greater than the losses, that the other side has “learned its lesson.”</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But these surface similarities notwithstanding, there are enormous differences in the mindsets of the two sides; perhaps nothing captures those differences better than each side’s most basic dread.</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Life for most Gazans (though not for all, for there is also a privileged class there) is bleak. So for Gazans (and for West Bank Palestinians, as well), the dread is that the status quo will remain. They fear that there will be no airport, no seaport, no relaxation of Israeli control over imports, no Palestinian State. What they most want is for things to change.</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Israelis have the opposite fear. They worry about the status quo slipping away. What Israelis dread is not the idea of a Palestinian State or a Gazan seaport, but the possibility (likelihood?) that those are just stepping-stones to a horrifying goal: the eradication of Israel altogether. Why would Israelis think that? Because Palestinian leadership makes it explicit.</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Abbas Zaki, a member of Fatah's central committee -- Fatah, the party of Mahmoud Abbas, by the way, and not Hamas -- made it clear that every Israeli is a target. “There are,” <a href="http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=471&doc_id=12482" rel="external" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;">he said,</a> “no innocent Israelis.”</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And how does Hamas plan to improve the lot of Palestinians? Not by ending the siege, not by making peace. Hamas’s goal, Israelis know, is the obliteration of the Jewish state. Khaled Mashaal, Hamas’s political head now hiding in Qatar, promised the other day that <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4565395,00.html" rel="external" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;">this was not the last campaign</a> to liberate Palestine. Not Gaza, but Palestine. It is not open borders he wants, but no borders at all -- with Israel gone.</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Israelis believe him.</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ismail Haniyeh, the former head of the Hamas regime in Gaza, sounded a similar theme. Despite the losses, he promised, Hamas would get the siege on Gaza lifted, and then would continue the battle to “<a href="http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Defiant-Haniyeh-vows-to-liberate-Palestine-after-Hamas-commanders-killed-by-Israel-371939" rel="external" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;">liberate Jerusalem and Palestine</a> from the neo-Nazi occupier.”</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Israelis believe him.</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This battle to “liberate Jerusalem and Palestine” from an “occupier” evokes the <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2000/nov/19/opinion/op-54180" rel="external" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;">common Palestinian claim</a> that Israelis are nothing but “Crusaders.” The point is clear. “You’re here now,” the Palestinians mean, “but the Christians eventually retreated, and we’ll get rid of you, too.”</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Israelis hear that language, and know their enemies are serious.</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Crusaders, in fact, are back in the news. When <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4564697,00.html" rel="external" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;">an Israeli Defense Forces officer was hit this week by a bullet</a> fired by battling factions in Syria’s never-ending civil war, Israelis were worried about more than the question of whether the shooting was intentional or not. Aligned with the rebels, they know, are al-Qaeda units. “<a href="http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4565408,00.html" rel="external" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;">Al Qaeda on the Syrian border</a>,” was the lead headline on this morning’s YNet, one of Israel’s most-read news websites, “Israel watches with worry.” Attached to the article was <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-on-high-alert-in-golan-heights/" rel="external" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;">a picture of Benny Gantz,</a> the IDF chief of staff, looking out at the Syrian border through powerful binoculars. The newest Crusaders are just over the border.</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Al-Qaeda, like Islamic State, make no secret of its ultimate intentions. Israelis read, and Israelis listen. And Israelis believe them.</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The battle with Hamas, as painful and as devastating as it was, was but one agonizing subplot in a much more ominous narrative. There’s the Muslim Brotherhood (temporarily stymied) in Egypt, Hamas (battered but not defeated) in Gaza, Hezbollah (awaiting Tehran’s command) in Lebanon, al-Qaeda on the Syrian border and Islamic State creeping ever closer. Israelis know what that means and what they will have to do to survive, whatever the international community may say or think.</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is thus no accident that one <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuk7c1VIaaA" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;">old but much-beloved song</a> was played often on the radio here during the long summer weeks of war. “I Have No Other Country,” it is called.</span></div> <blockquote style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0.5625em 1.25em 0px 1.1875em; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I have no other county</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Even if my land is burning</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">One Hebrew word</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Enters my veins, penetrates my soul</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With an aching body and a hungry heart --</span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This is my home.</span></div> </blockquote> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Israel is a country battered and angry, mourning and hurt. But it also a country filled with people who know that they have nowhere else to go, and that the Jewish People’s battle to stay in even part of their ancestral homeland may just be beginning all over again. Those in the international community who were troubled by Israel’s determination and firepower in the latest Gaza conflict will undoubtedly like even less what may be in store, just around the corner.</span></div> <div class="footnotes" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> </div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">To contact the writer of this article: Daniel Gordis at danielgordis@outlook.com </span></div> <div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.00392157) 1px 1px 1px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">To contact the editor responsible for this article: Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.net.</span></div> </div> </div>

Hamas Gets One Step Closer to Eliminating Israel

By   Daniel Gordis   The cease-fire is holding. The sirens have stopped, the bomb shelters are being closed, most of the reservists hav...

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