The EU won’t blacklist them and Mahmoud Abbas won’t fight them – so why is anyone surprised that Hamas just keeps gaining power?
In the meantime, only Israel has shown a willingness to fight this terror organization, and it’s a costly fight indeed – for both sides. Today’s operation to kill senior Hamas commander Mohammed al-Hanbali cost the life of an IDF soldier and wounded four more. It also collapsed the apartment structure where al-Hanbali was hiding, meaning 28 Palestinian families became homeless. And of course, Hamas will clamour for “revenge”, which it will take out on more innocent schoolchildren riding buses, or grandmothers shopping in supermarkets, or teenagers at a nightclub.
The US and especially the EU calls this a “cycle of violence”, implying that it is an endless chain of morally-equivalent actions and reactions on both sides. They then tend to blame Israel on the ground that Israel is the occupying power and the Palestinians are being occupied. I suppose using those overly simplistic leaps of logic, this makes sense somehow.
But, of course, there is no moral equivalence between assassinating a terrorist murderer, and blowing up a busload of innocent civilians. None whatsoever. Israel is engaged in defence while the Palestinian terrorists are engaged in offence. Israel’s goal is peace and security; the goal of the Palestinians is the eradication of Israel. No, not the same thing at all.
Unfortunately, the world seems to think that the terrorists are reasonable people and that they should be tiptoed around and negotiated with. Israel knows that there is no chance of peace with Hamas, or an Arafat-led PA, calling the shots. So they’ll keep fighting this war against terrorism and the world will keep on blaming them for it . . . until it’s won.
“Israel is engaged in defense while the Palestinian terrorists are engaged in offense.”
You could see it like that, as many anti-Palestinian militants do. Or, you could say that the Palestinians are engaged in defense against an ocupation of their land.
“Israel’s goal is peace and security; the goal of the Palestinians is the erradication of Israel.”
Yes, Israel’s goal is certainly peace and security. The security of Jewish Israeli citizens and peace with or without the security of Arab Israeli citizens and the other non-Jewish inhabitants of the area. Had you said that Hamas or Islamic Jihad’s goal is the eradication of Israel, then I might have no comment. However, the Palestinian people are not monolithic in their views. Some accept a two-state solution. Others would like to see a one-state solution but with a secular democratic government guaranteeing equal citizenship to all.