Beyond Endurance

"Our forces, large ground forces accompanied by massive air force support, naval forces and intelligence, are taking over targets in Gaza, operating against tunnels and terror activists and infrastructure."
Brig.-Gen. Motti Almoz

"All border areas are under fire. There is a tank shell every minute. There is also fire from the sea toward police checkpoints."
Gaza security operations room official

"[The operation's goal is] to establish a reality in which Israeli residents can live in safety and security without continuous indiscriminate terror."
IDF spokesman

And so, the ground invasion of Gaza, for the moment a limited one, and perhaps only a limited one, has commenced. There was little other choice, other than for Israel to continue to stand by as rockets shot out of Gaza continued to pulverize Israel. A spokesman for Hamas, Fawzi Barhoum, spoke of the invasion as "a dangerous step. The occupation will pay its price expensively, and Hamas is ready for confrontation".

One would imagine that to be the case, that Hamas is prepared for confrontation, since they have provoked this stage of the confrontation. But where are the commanders, the leaders of Hamas? Nowhere to be seen. They are in protective underground haven. Khaled Meshal instructs his legions of terrorists from the safety of Doha, where he has refuge from the possibility that he will be targeted by Israel. While urging blessed martyrdom on his underlings he is not quiet yet prepared himself.

Smoke from flares rises in the sky in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Thursday, July 17, 2014.  (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

And even so, scores of rockets from Gaza steam into cities all over central and southern Israel. Hamas feels hard done by. Israel, predictably returning rocket fire for artillery fire. Returning invasion for the attempted tunnel-incursion into Israel by heavily armed Hamas fighters emerging 270 metres into Israel, a kilometre from a kibbutz, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and other weaponry.

For every action there is reaction. This is a practical lesson that continues to evade the notice of Palestinian militants who feel their honourable calling in life is not to settle an ill-fated and useless continuance of war and hatred, but to doggedly repeat all the elements that lead to it, rather than submit themselves to the humiliation of allowing a Jewish State to remain in place, alongside one of their own.

Now, thousands of Israeli soldiers backed up by tanks and gigantic DC9 bulldozers encroached upon the territory ruled by Hamas after numerous threats to do so failed to arrest the attention of the Hamas leadership. Israeli public opinion is in full accord with the invasion decision, albeit reluctantly agreed upon by the government, feeling it had few options left but to submit to the under-the-circumstances necessity of entering into a ground war, however limited, which will have unwanted consequences.

The civilian casualty figures among the Palestinian Gaza population will inevitably rise, alarming the international community. Which dotes on urging Israel to restrain its responses and satisfy the demands for "proportionality" in response. None of whom have ever had to live under the threat of constant terrorist bombardments on their civilian enclaves, their borders and sovereignty threatened with obliteration.

Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, Israeli military spokesman, explained the next stage of Operation Protective Edge would be to penetrate the north, east and south of Gaza with Israeli ground forces. The aim not to topple Hamas necessarily, but to "make sure that the Hamas terrorists will be pursued, paralyzed and threatened" by the sheer force of the IDF. "We will be striking the infrastructure, we will be striking the operatives, in order to safeguard the citizens of Israel."

"The IDF is not bound by a time frame. We are operating to implement our goals." Advice for Palestinians during this period representing an existential crisis for many? "Refrain and keep away from Hamas terrorists. Keep away from the infrastructure which is being used against the state of Israel. That's the best advice we can give them."