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Why Israel can invade Gaza
Jun. 30th, 2006 10:49 pmAn interesting note.
Just before the Israelis jumped into the Gaza strip, the papers were filled with photos of Palestinians bravely preparing for the Israeli onslaught, piling up berms of sand to slow the progress of Israeli armor, and assembling to prepare to resist an attack. Nevertheless, just a day later the Israeli army smoothly rolled into Gaza, arrested a chunk of the Palestinian parliament and rolled right back out again. Nowhere did they report running into heavy resistance, or even having to do much fighting.
So what happened?
What happened is that Hamas decided not to put up a show. There is a time and a place for desperate last stands against the Israelis, but that time is not here. They knew that the odds were against them; an army that uses an Egyptian armored division as a speedbump is not going to slow down much for a pair of sand dunes. But that also underlies the fundamental dynamic of the entire situation, and the one that is currently stuck in Hamas's teeth.
Israel holds all the cards. If it came down to a knock-down, dragout, shootout at the OK Corral, it would be the Israelis who would walk away. Tomorrow morning the IDF could go up to the gates of the West Bank and calmly serve the eviction notice, and the Palestinian nation would have no choice but to hit the road. This is not a justification, or a moral position, or anything of the sort. This is just a logical balancing of the forces involved. When you come down to it, the power of the ballot can be made to bow to the power of the bullet, and the Israelis have all the bullets.
This goes beyond missing Israeli soldiers, or rockets fired into Israel, or even the composition of the Palestinian parliament. This goes straight to the heart of Hamas's entire philosophy and rips it apart. No matter how many times they say the magic words about reclaiming the Palestinian homeland and removing all Israelis, for the immediate future those two are stuck with each other. It has been an article of faith among the radicals for years that eventually the Israelis will be driven away and into the sea by the Palestinian masses. And it is simply, and totally, false. Jews are not crusaders. They will not go home.
Hamas needs to learn this and start branching out while the peace parties in Israel still have some leverage. Because if they cannot understand this simple fact, the consequences will be haunting us in a hundred years.
Just before the Israelis jumped into the Gaza strip, the papers were filled with photos of Palestinians bravely preparing for the Israeli onslaught, piling up berms of sand to slow the progress of Israeli armor, and assembling to prepare to resist an attack. Nevertheless, just a day later the Israeli army smoothly rolled into Gaza, arrested a chunk of the Palestinian parliament and rolled right back out again. Nowhere did they report running into heavy resistance, or even having to do much fighting.
So what happened?
What happened is that Hamas decided not to put up a show. There is a time and a place for desperate last stands against the Israelis, but that time is not here. They knew that the odds were against them; an army that uses an Egyptian armored division as a speedbump is not going to slow down much for a pair of sand dunes. But that also underlies the fundamental dynamic of the entire situation, and the one that is currently stuck in Hamas's teeth.
Israel holds all the cards. If it came down to a knock-down, dragout, shootout at the OK Corral, it would be the Israelis who would walk away. Tomorrow morning the IDF could go up to the gates of the West Bank and calmly serve the eviction notice, and the Palestinian nation would have no choice but to hit the road. This is not a justification, or a moral position, or anything of the sort. This is just a logical balancing of the forces involved. When you come down to it, the power of the ballot can be made to bow to the power of the bullet, and the Israelis have all the bullets.
This goes beyond missing Israeli soldiers, or rockets fired into Israel, or even the composition of the Palestinian parliament. This goes straight to the heart of Hamas's entire philosophy and rips it apart. No matter how many times they say the magic words about reclaiming the Palestinian homeland and removing all Israelis, for the immediate future those two are stuck with each other. It has been an article of faith among the radicals for years that eventually the Israelis will be driven away and into the sea by the Palestinian masses. And it is simply, and totally, false. Jews are not crusaders. They will not go home.
Hamas needs to learn this and start branching out while the peace parties in Israel still have some leverage. Because if they cannot understand this simple fact, the consequences will be haunting us in a hundred years.