Defensive Response

What is it exactly that the world cannot get its mind around when it comes to Israel defending its soil, the lives of its citizens? Against a collective pathology of poisonous hatred, a psychosis of viral grievance, blame and intent to shed Jewish blood. Hamas saw no further utility in prolonging a hudna with Israel, and unilaterally declared it null and void. Immediately commencing to send dozens of rockets across the border from Gaza into Israel.

Reinstating a barrage of fear and terror that had formerly beset the Israelis within range. Although the rocket fire had not entirely ceased, it represent a six-month lull in volatile hostile action. The towns like Sderot which have had to live under a constant barrage of rockets, destroying buildings, harming residents, traumatizing children, resulting in a total collapse of communities' existence, can no longer be held under siege by an intransigent group of moral felons.

Hamas's actions, its belligerent rhetoric and outright refusal to accept anything less than Israel's demise identifies it as a recalcitrant partner for a future independent state of Palestine, living side by side with a neighbour in peace. It must be destroyed, for it will never be willing to accommodate itself to the presence of Israel. For all the bravado of its leaders, they're outright cowards. At the first sign of force to meet the violence it metes out, they disappear into safety.

Leaving the helpless population, and Hamas's militia foot soldiers, to face the wrath of a country no longer willing to contain its response, to abide with patience in the hope that the insanity will cease. The fearless spiritual leader, hiving himself off in Syria in a secret hiding place, unwilling to be seen in public, spits the venom of pure bile at the very thought of the existence of Israel. His stalwart Gaza-located first lieutenant swiftly seeks shelter at the first sign of Israel's defensive actions.

Hamas knows full well what it does in placing its various installations in Gaza; the vulnerability of the population is of no concern to them, other than for their value in being able to claim that, in striking back at Hamas, the Israel Defence Force is heartlessly attacking helpless civilians. Israel agonizes over the difficulties facing it in combating a viciously determined enemy while at the same time trying to avoid civilian casualties.

There is the very real possibility of a two-front conflict resulting from this assault, with Hezbollah reaching out from Lebanon to launch its own rocket attacks against northern Israel. Its leader, terrorist chief Hassan Nasrallah has issued a promise to that effect, claiming it will visit upon Israel what Gaza is now experiencing. Israel may very well be faced with attacks from that source; a week ago Katyusha rockets, fully armed, were discovered pointing toward Israel from Lebanon.

Hamas appeals to the world to condemn the defensive actions of Israel, terming the IDF action analogous to genocide, an 'ugly massacre', promising retaliation of the kind common before the erection of the wall, when suicide attacks within the heart of the country atrociously, horribly, illustrated how committed Palestinian terrorists are to consigning the country and its citizens to utter destruction.

A new Palestinian peoples' uprising against Israel is being cultivated, as Hamas and Hezbollah encourage the Palestinians to rise against their oppressor. "We will not leave our land, we will not raise white flags and we will not kneel except before God", according to Ismail Haniyeh. This god whom the Islamists faithfully pay obeisance to is not one commonly envisaged by most faithful, but is portrayed instead as a vengeful, blood-lusting, martyr-demanding spiritual demon.

As Hamas and Hezbollah and lesser militias have interpreted Islam for their singular purpose, so have they modelled themselves, after a demented version of a slaughtering deity of overpoweringly relentless hatred. The Islamist jihadists busy themselves propitiating a god of unambiguously deadly conflict. They have themselves reverted to a primal surge of incandescent animus against other people.

They reverence violence, and have no compassion for the people whom they claim to represent. Treating the civilian population as dispensable fodder in their violence-inspired defence of a vicious-spirited god whose purpose and meaning they have fashioned to suit their end-game of war without end. Israel's unilateral withdrawal of its settlers from Gaza - much as its withdrawal from Lebanon - taught it a grave lesson.

Nothing will appease the unappeasable. Peace will not develop from a goodwill withdrawal to entice those whose activities were controlled by force of arms to seek a more reasonable alternative for all concerned. The militantly devoted militias are interested in one thing only; to disrupt and ultimately disable the infrastructure of the Israeli state, to utterly destroy the potential for peace between the two solitudes, and to completely pulverize Jewish life

For the meantime, the defensive assault by the IDF, one promised by Israel's government should Hamas not cease its offensive assaults has been partially successful in its mission; to uproot and destroy personnel and infrastructure of the Islamists. Through the process, and given the crowded conditions of the land, and the placement within the population of Hamas posts, there have been civilian deaths and casualties.

The poverty and misery of the Palestinian Gazans is completely inexcusable, and utterly avoidable. Their plight has resulted from the intransigence of ruling Hamas, confident in their righteousness, and unconcerned at the burden they have placed on ordinary people in Gaza. The responsibility for the damage done to civilian infrastructure, the dire conditions in which people live there, and the harm now being done to the populace is directly attributable to Hamas's actions.

Along with the destruction of Hamas's security headquarters and training camps and weapons depots, there have been civilian casualties. It would be impossible to mount a defensive incursion and assault without incurring casualties, and Hamas, in its violent belligerence, its vile agenda, knows this very well. It simply does not care, has proven in the past, just as it does now, that it is prepared to do what it wishes, regardless of civilian safety.

The anguish of Palestinians with their insecurity, their misery, their unfulfilled needs, is solvable. The will of their leaders to move toward a solution acceptable to both the Palestinians and the Israelis is simply absent. The world's heart bleeds at the prospect of increased Israeli measures to protect the citizens of Israel, but what solution does the world have to offer?