Taking Due Heed

"If they launch a ground war, they will be shortening the path for us to kidnap many soldiers in order to make a deal to end the bloodshed and release the detainees as happened in the past."
Fawzeh Barhoom, Hamas Spokesman

"They are coming to us. Israel started this, so I will do whatever I can to stop it, even if it means kidnapping Israelis. You are talking about thousands of Palestinians in the (Israeli) prisons for whom the peace process did nothing. The only way we can help these people is to kidnap Israelis and get these people out of jail."
Ihab al Ghussain, Gaza deputy information minister

Trucks transport IDF tanks on a road leading to southern Israel, on July 12, 2014, as Israel warns of a possible ground operation in the Gaza Strip (Photo credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

"Even if it means kidnapping Israelis"? Surely he meant particularly if it means kidnapping Israelis, since Hamas and other violent terrorists like Islamic Jihad have never made any secret of their intention to do just that, since it has become such a profitable enterprise. As for "these people" to whom al Ghussain alludes could he possibly mean members of his group found guilty of murder, who he feels should be free to embark on additional such missions?

Because they most certainly do, once released for their original crimes. Which, of course, they see not as crimes but as retaliation for the hubris that Jews demonstrate by their unreasonable insistence that they deserve a state of their own, in the process lamentably usurping the presence of Palestinian Arabs to establish themselves on the sacred soil dedicated to Islam.

As for Israel "coming to us", that coming was long in its appearance, gradual because it was a reluctant decision to do so, even in the face and fact of ongoing, intolerable rocket attacks across from Gaza into Israel, threatening the lives and the mental stability of Israeli citizens. That they are citizens is of no concern to Hamas, since Jews in Israel are dispensable; they are all Zionists or they wouldn't be there, and as such they are justified targets.

Smoke billows from buildings following an Israeli air strike on Gaza City on July 11, 2014. (photo credit: Mohammed Othman/AFP)

But then, Hamas isn't too picky about the deaths of any civilians, Jews or Arabs, all in the name of achieving the end goal of punishing, then demolishing the State of Israel. For their purpose, they cache weapons within mosques, community, centres, schools, hospitals, apartment buildings. Rockets are launched from within crowded civilian areas with the knowledge that retaliatory fire to destroy the launch sites will also hit unfortunate civilians.

Providing ample valuable fodder for the kind of propaganda beloved of the Hamas 'intellectuals' who equate Palestinian deaths with Western outrage against Israel, not incorrectly. And more than happy to re-establish its credentials as Zionist-baiters-haters-destroyers in the estimation of Iran, Hezbollah and Syria, using the more advanced Syrian rocketry courtesy of Iran in bombing Tel Aviv.

Invade Gaza, Hamas warns, with IDF foot soldiers at their very own peril, for Hamas is set in its conquering mode and slaughter will prevail. Slaughter of Palestinian civilians in far greater numbers, and with good fortune, the abduction of a few Israeli soldiers at a tremendous cost. But look what it gains Hamas; from its level of low repute with Shiite Iran for its lack of enthusiasm over Shiites slaughtering Sunnis, to a height of admiration.

And from all points of the Muslim compass, money, glorious funding pouring in, so there is no need for Fatah to share the paltry Western-sourced charitable donations that keeps Palestinian territories limping along. Abductions? A resurgent Hamas will assure a harvesting of abductions of vulnerable Israeli teens, with just enough panache in their murders to delight those Palestinians who feel it just and moot.

"The armed wing of the Hamas movement has decided to respond to the Israeli aggression, and we warn you against carrying out flights to Ben Gurion Airport, which will be one of our targets today because it also hosts a military air base." Duly alerted. What now? Israel come to a shuddering, thumping halt, suspending all activities, a nation at a high state of alert of impending doom, courtesy of Hamas?

"I will end it when our goals are realized. And the overriding goal is to restore the peace and quiet", insists Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What? Did he fail to gather the message? Like those being warned before Israeli attacks to vacate the premises of Hamas commanders' homes, used as command posts?