Tiny Israel is an island of democracy in a sea of oligarchic dictatorships that, were it not for their oil, would still be desert lands of nomadic tribesmen. Israel is also a pro-western ally amidst a collection of Arab states that would be openly hostile to the West were it not for the fact that western countries are their best oil customers and most of their petro dollars are invested in those countries.
So I am pro-Israel, although sensitive to the implications of its occupation of the West Bank. I hope that occupation ends — but so do most Israelis. Unfortunately, historically, whenever Israel ends its occupation of Arab territory, it has usually endangered, not furthered, its national security, and the recent fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza perfectly illustrates this.
In 2005, Israel withdrew (literally) lock-stock-and-barrel from Gaza, hoping it might bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians living there. Instead, Hamas began firing rockets from Gaza into Israel, hitting buildings, synagogues, and even schools, and killing many Israelis. In the recent fighting Hamas has launched nearly 2,000 rockets at Israel.
Why? Because, according to Hamas, Israel continues to “occupy” Palestinian territory, but Hamas isn’t just talking about the West Bank. Hamas is also talking about Israel itself, which Hamas considers occupied territory because Israel has no right to exist there.
Or anywhere. The Hamas charter calls for the “obliteration” of Israel and the killing of all its Jews. Hamas leaders have publicly stated that “there is no solution for the Palestinian question except Jihad.” In Palestinian schools, the maps of the Middle East do not include the state of Israel — it has disappeared, which is Hamas’ goal for the actual Israel.
Of course, Hamas cannot defeat Israel militarily, as the recent fighting’s hugely lopsided death toll — many thousands of Palestinians dead, hundreds of Israelis dead — attests. But Hamas is defeating Israel in the public relations war, thanks in part to a reflexively anti-Israel media. Nothing is more moving than the deaths of innocent children, and a recent, typical, Washington Post headline read, “Israel hits Gaza home. Children and women killed.”
But that is mostly because Hamas purposely sacrifices its women and children. Hamas deliberately launches its rockets from dense population centers, forcing Israel to target those areas. And even though Israel has regularly warned the Palestinian population about the where and when of its impending strikes, the Hamas Interior Ministry has ordered women and children to remain in those targeted areas, an order regularly repeated on Palestinian television.
The goal is the death of the millions of innocent men, women and children in Israel. If the deaths of innocent men, women and children in Gaza furthers that goal, that is Jihad.
