Operation Cast Lead: Day 15

Hamas continues launching rockets into Israel and more Israelis have been injured as a result.

The last UN resolution didn't go anywhere because Hamas refused to accept a ceasefire and Israel continued to defend itself from terror attacks, so the UN is again working on another ceasefire resolution. This time, they're thinking that they should put the Palestinian Authority (PA) back in charge.

That's a curious situation. Fatah is nominally in charge of the PA, but that's only because Hamas refuses to recognize the PA since Hamas won elections and Fatah refused to turn over power to them. It's been a power struggle ever since, and the Palestinian civil war ensued with Hamas taking control of Gaza and throwing Fatah from rooftops.

What the UN really means is that they're looking for some kind of way to put Fatah in charge of Gaza, and that is a marginal improvement over Hamas. Fatah has managed to keep violence against Israel down in the West Bank, but they too seek Israel's destruction. More importantly, Fatah lacks legitimacy in the eyes of Gazans, who feel that not only is Fatah corrupt, but that they're collaborators with Israel. It would be an uphill battle for Fatah to gain the trust of Gazans, who still think that Hamas is their best option.

That's truly a sad situation for those Palestinians who just want peace and quiet. Their leaders are genocidal ideologues who seek Israel's destruction and can't accept Israel's destruction. They refuse to negotiate with Israel on anything other than hudnas allowing Hamas time to regroup and rearm for the next phase of their long term war against Israel.

A ceasefire isn't going to stabilize the situation. Victory by Israel will. I keep saying this but it bears repeating. Hamas will not stop its war against Israel until Israel is destroyed. They will continue engaging in a cycle of violence until such time that Israel's will to defend itself has been worn away by media and diplomats who prevent Israel from responding to attacks. It has repeatedly happened over the past six months, where diplomats will excuse the rocket fire from Hamas as isolated incidents. Hundreds of rocket attacks during the so-called ceasefire are isolated incidents? That's not a ceasefire. That's a war, and only when Israel responds with force to put Hamas' capabilities to attack Israel out of business does the world respond with horror.

Diplomats still don't get it. They think that Israel should turn the other cheek and take Hamas rocket attacks without responding. That's the word from none other than Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki. He's got his audiences to deal with - Iraqis who are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, but his own government doesn't tolerate terrorists operating inside Iraq either.

Hamas rejects international observers in Gaza. That makes sense. Why show the world what the terrorists are doing in violating international law at every turn. They're busy engaging in war crimes by using human shields, operating without uniforms so as to mingle with civilians, using schools (even UNRWA operated ones), UNRWA refugee camps, hospitals, and residences to carry out attacks against Israel. Hamas wanted to turn the urban areas of Gaza into a warzone with the express purpose of maximizing casualties among civilians.

Meanwhile, Palestinian terrorists attempted to bomb a group of Jewish families in the Israeli city of Lod.

Shortly after 9:00 p.m., Jewish families living in the neighborhood heard a loud explosion. Residents went out to see what had caused the blast and saw that one bomb had been set off in a courtyard and that a second bomb had not yet exploded. Police were called in and safely defused the second bomb.

Neither bomb caused injury, but a child who was playing near the scene of the attack was badly frightened, local Jews said.

Police initially reported that the attack had targeted a known criminal and was apparently criminally motivated. However, by Friday morning police released a second statement, reporting that the attack was apparently “motivated by nationalism” -- in other words, that the attackers targeted Jews simply because they hate Jews.

The attackers managed to flee the scene and have not yet been arrested. Officers said Friday that they were working with Arab and Muslim contacts in the city in an attempt to locate the terrorists.

The media continues its old tricks, claiming that Israel rebuffs peace efforts, when in fact Israel says that there's no way that Hamas will ever agree to any of them, and Hamas agrees - and Hamas proves Israel's point by carrying out still more attacks on Israel.

Noah Pollack makes an argument that I've been making as well (HT: Israellycool). Ceasefires delay peace. They certainly aren't a substitute, and Hamas considers ceasefires to be hudnas in any event. That's why Israel's victory is absolutely necessary in this conflict.

UPDATE:
The media's mendacity continues. They'll call flares dropped by Israeli aircraft to protect themselves against surface to air missiles weapons systems. They're defensive in nature, but that gets ignored. That's the AP for you.

Hizbullah continues its support of Hamas by parading kids thoroughly indoctrinated in the lessons of jihad.

UPDATE:
Reports in the Guardian claiming that sources within the Obama Administration are urging low level clandestine contacts with Hamas are untrue, according to a new report from the Jersualem Post.

The Obama spokesperson was responding to an article in Britain's Guardian daily on Friday, which asserted that three people with knowledge of discussions held in the Obama camp said that while the president-elect will not approve direct diplomatic negotiations with Hamas early on, his advisers are urging him to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches, in light of the growing recognition in Washington that ostracizing the terror group is counter-productive policy.

"The president elect's repeated statements [about not dealing with Hamas] are accurate," Anderson said. "This unsourced story is not."

Let's hope that the Jerusalem Post report is accurate.