"Hands On The Trigger"

"Allahu akbar, dear people of Gaza you won.  You have broken the arrogance of the Jews."
Message from mosque loudspeakers in Gaza

"This war has brought huge financial damage to Gaza and it will take a long time for us to recover.  All the banks have been closed, the businesses have closed, the exchanges have run out of currency, the price of the dollar has soared."
Naji Al Yasji, Gaza City clothes shop owner

"Now is not the time for moral relativism between a terrorist organization -- Hamas -- and a democracy trying to defend itself."
Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird

The aerial and naval assault of the IDF on Gaza has left the Hamas civil and security infrastructure in smouldering ruin.  The main police department, recently rebuilt after an earlier attack four years ago destroyed again.  Former Fatah headquarters, crushed by rocket strikes.  Key ministry offices flattened and smouldering.

Does the clothes shop owner in Gaza City place the blame for his city's upheaval and destruction on Hamas?  Actually, Hamas, now more than ever, has gained his trust.  And his reaction is a reflection of the broader Gazan society.  And to that can be added the heightened respect and admiration of West Bank Palestinians as well.

For Hamas, though responsible for over a hundred Palestinian deaths in leading the IDF to respond to its rocket launching into Israel, and for the infrastructure carnage left in the wake of Israel Defence Forces' response to terrorist strikes into Israel, has demonstrated broad Palestinian defiance.  Honour restored through 'resistance' to the 'occupation'. 

In Gaza the occupation is by Hamas.

The neurosis of blind hatred blinkers human minds to reality, and what is imagined is what is true.

At the imposition of the Wednesday night truce, an additional dozen or so rockets were fired across into Israel.  And Hamas gunmen fired their handguns and rifles in jubilation skyward, celebrating their stunning victory over the enemy. 

This represents yet another famous victory for the Palestinian cause; the enemy is reeling under the Hamas onslaught, begging for a ceasefire.

And the Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, boasted victory for the Palestinians; his fighters' "hands were on the trigger" lest Israel not abide by the ceasefire.  Armed "resistance" proved the best path forward for Palestinians. 

"If Israel complies, we are compliant.  If it does not comply, our hands are on the trigger."