Israelis Go To Polls; Hamas Continues Consolidating Grip on Gaza

Israelis are going to the polls today in large numbers, and it is likely that the new Knesset will move substantially to the right, with Labor losing out big, slipping to fourth in size for the first time in the party's history. It's a tossup between Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu, and Kadima, and it is similarly a tossup between Binyamin Netanyahu, Avigdor Lieberman, and Tzipi Livni. Israellycool is liveblogging the elections.

Meanwhile, Hamas is busy consolidating its grip on Gaza, killing collaborators and anyone who might pose a threat to Hamas' continued hold on power.

The human rights group said in a report that at least two dozen men have been shot dead by gunmen from the Palestinian militia that governs the Gaza Strip since December 27.

"Scores of others have been shot in the legs, knee-capped or inflicted with other injuries intended to cause severe disability, subjected to severe beatings ... or otherwise tortured or ill-treated," it added.

"Hamas forces and militias in the Gaza Strip have engaged in a campaign of abductions, deliberate and unlawful killings, torture and death threats against those they accuse of 'collaborating' with Israel, as well as opponents and critics," the report said.

The victims included members of Palestinian Authority security forces and members of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas' Fatah party, Amnesty said.

The campaign began shortly after the beginning of the three-week Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip on December 27 and continued after the ceasefire on January 18, according to Amnesty.

I've been reporting on such extrajudicial killings and the shooting of collaborators for weeks, which included the hospital incidents where Hamas would go through hospital wards murdering and kneecapping those people they believed were collaborators.

Yet the world expects Israel to make deals with Hamas? Hamas has no interest in peace with Israel, and the outcome of the Israeli elections will reflect the fact that the center-left has failed to protect Israel through negotiations and diplomacy with Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Kadima has likewise failed, but that doesn't mean that the far right Israel Beitinu is any better; its policies border on the fascist in demanding loyalty oaths and of course the Arab media is busy portraying the outcome as being even more extreme than it will be.

Israel is responding to the incessant attacks and the Hamas war on Israel that has been unabated for years, and despite the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Hamas has used the withdrawal from Gaza to consolidate its grip on power and now uses Gaza to fire rockets deeper into Israel. It was Kadima's failures to deal with the rocket - by ignoring the attacks until they were so numerous and the Israeli casualties started piling up that they no longer could be ignored. Israel's restraint was seen as weakness by Hamas and they fired rockets.

Hamas still attacks, even during the so-called "truce," which is really nothing more than a hudna to allow Hamas to regroup and resupply. The end of Operation Cast Lead was not due to a military decision, but a political one. It meant that the military gains against Hamas - destroying Hamas leadership, weapons caches, and smuggling tunnels stopped short of dealing Hamas a fatal blow. It has allowed Hamas to declare victory amid the ruins of its buildings. Livni and outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert deserve the blame for this situation, which follows their disastrous handling of the Hizbullah war in 2006. It is a pattern of indecisiveness and a failure to see the military campaign through to victory. Instead, the Israeli political class appears willing to settle for a stalemate, which only serves to benefit the terrorists and their terror masters.

UPDATE:
Carl in Jerusalem points out that the Arab media portrays any Israeli party that doesn't accept Arab right of return to Israeli territory extremist. Considering that all the Israeli parties, including the dovish-far left Meretz doesn't accept the right of return, it pretty much guarantees that all parties would be accused of being right-wingers.