What Were They Thinking

Just what was Hamas thinking in starting a military campaign against the Israelis less than a month after Israel withdrew the last of its civilian and military personnel from Gaza? Did they actually think this through?

Hamas is a terrorist organization, and yet they proceeded to instigate a slugfest with one of the best trained and imposing military forces in the world. You just knew this would end badly for Hamas terrorists.

And it did. Israel whacked a bunch of them as the terrorists fired off rockets and missiles at Israeli territory. That sting they're feeling this morning. That's pride. They should have learned not to mess with Israel, especially when Israel doesn't have to worry about its own civilians in Gaza anymore. Since the terrorists are operating openly and freely in Gaza, Israel can and has taken the gloves off, much to the detriment of the terrorist groups.

If one tried to construct the most foolish strategy possible on the part of Hamas and the Palestinians, it would have been to use Gaza as an attack site immediately after the withdrawal of the occupation. Hamas just found out that not only does that constitute an act of war, it also makes Hamas at best partisans, not covered under the Geneva Convention. The Israelis have no responsibility to treat them as POWs once captured, but as spies -- unless Mahmoud Abbas wants to claim them as the Palestinian Army, which would then make the West Bank a legitimate theater of war as well as Gaza.

On the plus side for Hamas, the operation has given them an opportunity to look for new leadership, since Israel captured theirs during the operations in the last two days. Perhaps that will improve their strategic thinking, but somehow I rather doubt it.