Israelis Pound Gaza in Repeat of 2006 Attack in Lebanon

A little over a week ago, a truce between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip ended when Hamas announced “game on.” For several days, its “fighters” launched rockets into southern Israel. Israel then responded with its customary excessive force. American-made F-16 aircraft and other parts of the Israeli air force bombed the bejesus out of Gaza. Welcome back to 2006.

The Hamas crowd is a bunch of desperate Islamists backed by Iran and are mainly a terrorist organization with ambitions of legitimacy. Having won the PM's office in the last Palestinian election, those ambitions are coming close to reality. Since its charter calls for the destruction of Israel, the Israelis want Hamas destroyed. This is almost identical to the Hezbollah-Israeli situation that led to the month-long war between those two in 2006 in southern Lebanon. While Israel may have done more damage, Hezbollah claimed victory by being the first Arab fighting force not to get itself overwhelmed by the Israeli Defense Force.

Now, several rockets falling in one's country fired by a group whose members want one's elimination is, not to be too direct, irritating. Like a mosquito buzzing about one's ear, eventually a slap is coming. Before the Israelis responded, no one had died because of the rocket attacks – the rockets are mostly home-made devices with less guidance than Fourth of July fireworks. Once the Israelis decided to act, 300 Gazans died, over 1,000 were wounded, and once again, Israel managed to unite the region against it.

At least, it united the “Arab street.” Many of the governments in neighboring states hate Hamas. While the brotherhood of the Arab people is showcased in the demonstrations in various Middle Eastern cities, the political split between modernist secular states and the Islamists is apparent by the lack of actions to support Gaza. Egypt refuses to open its border so long as Hamas is in control.

The use of excessive force, however, had little to do with the desire to kill Palestinians (that was merely a happy by-product for the hardest of hardline Zionists). Instead, it had to do with February's election in Israel. The current government is behind in the polls, and a crushing victory would boost its prospects. One wonders if the Israelis have an aircraft carrier on which they could hang a “Mission Accomplished” banner.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Kensington Review Home