Goals and Objectives

It is my sincere belief that Israel stopped its campaign against Hamas far too soon. Hamas was on the ropes, and foreign policy needs to ensure that the operation was completed by the inauguration of Barack Obama was an arbitrary and capricious decision that will actually serve to extend the conflict since Hamas will come back at some point to resume its rocket war with Israel that never ended.

The journalists are busy trying to make sense of the death and destruction in Gaza, and are trying to figure out how Israel can be blamed for all the carnage.

Far too many pundits, diplomats, and journalists will ignore Hamas and their role for initiating the conflict. Thousands of kassam rockets go down the memory hole. Terrorist attacks, a call for jihad and the annihilation of Israel are part and parcel of the Hamas Charter, and yet the diplomats think that they've worked out a ceasefire? Israel ceases, and Hamas will fire. That's as it has been.

All that will be remembered is that Israel dropped tons of ordnance on Gaza and blew up parliamentary buildings, schools, offices, and residences, ignoring that all those facilities were used by Hamas to fight Israel and to hide their weapons and terrorists among civilian populations so as to maximize the civilian casualties.

So, what did Israel accomplish? It reasserted deterrence. It showed that it would not tolerate Hamas rocket attacks, but that deterrence capability lasts only as long as Israel retains a zero-tolerance policy; the first rocket or mortar attack and Israel must go back into Gaza to wipe up those Hamas left.

It's most curious that Hamas now breaks out their uniforms after the cessation of Israel's actions. Hamas is again directing traffic, and perhaps some Gazans will wonder why Hamas went to war and caused so much death, misery, and mayhem with nothing gained.

Hamas put those uniforms away the moment Israel began the airstrikes, but now that Israel has called off the dogs of war, they're back out. Hamas knows that if their thugs wore those uniforms, their gig of hiding behind women and children would have been overtly exposed for the cruel and barbaric act that it was. By blending into civilian populations, Hamas is claiming that the body count was comprised of more civilians than actually occurred. That was done with a propagandists' eye to undermining Israel's right to defend itself and to take the appropriate actions against terrorists operating in densely populated areas.

Hamas makes no bones about its intentions. This is a hudna. It is meant to allow Hamas to regroup and rearm for the next phase of its genocidal conflict with Israel. Hamas would sacrifice the lives of all Gazans to fulfill its religious obligations to destroy Israel. They say that they will continue to smuggle weapons into Gaza for that purpose.

Ed Morrissey thinks that Hamas was a clear loser despite its claims to the contrary. He points out that Iran has changed its stance in relation to the disastrous efforts of Hamas' Iranian militia, which was wiped out with ease. Israel indeed destroyed Hamas at every opportunity, but Hamas will claim the Pyrrhic victory, and if you repeat the lie enough, people will come to believe it.

Arab leaders continue to weigh in on the Israeli operation in Gaza, and Saudi King Abdullah says that Israel used excessive force.

[correction] I wonder if Abdullah would have criticized King Hussein of Jordan in 1970-1 when Fatah and PLO terrorists started a civil war that King Hussein brutally crushed, giving rise to the PLO faction, Black September. Thousands of Palestinians died in that uprising against the Jordanian King. No one shed a tear, least of all the current Jordanian King Abdullah, who now owes his existence to his father's liberal use of force against terrorists arrayed against his regime. Make no doubt, Abdullah is applying quite the double standard here, and it is for Palestinian consumption within the Arab World. Arab regimes have significant Islamist populations that they're trying to keep under wraps, and they're offering just enough red meat to these groups so as to keep them from rising up against them.

The Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is an offshoot, has tentacles throughout the Middle East and beyond, and these pronouncements are all designed to keep the Brotherhood placated, even as the regimes themselves are largely breathing a sigh of relief that Israel took Hamas and Iran down a few notches.

Now, the world will begin throwing money at Gaza to rebuild what Israel destroyed. The Saudis have pledged $1 billion in reconstruction aid. I have no doubt that was done with an eye to thwarting Iranian influence there. The key for Israel will be to see that the money isn't diverted by Hamas for rebuilding their terror infrastructure. Even the EU is leery of rebuilding as long as Hamas controls Gaza. Still, watch the UN direct the money into Gaza regardless that the terrorists have retained nominal control over Gaza.

So, where are the Hamas humanitarian gestures? They aren't going to be forthcoming. Nor should anyone expect that Gilad Shalit be released either. Hamas will continue holding him for use to demand Israel release hundreds of terrorists from Israeli jails.