Cease fire?

How to fix this?

Violence marred the cease-fire in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday as Hamas gunmen fired mortar shells into Israel and opened fire on IDF troops who remained inside the Palestinian territory.

In the afternoon, IAF aircraft bombed a mortar launcher in the Gaza Strip that had been used hours earlier to fire some eight mortar shells into the Negev. It was the first air strike against Gaza since Israel unilaterally implemented a cease-fire there on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Gaza gunmen fired at IDF patrols in two separate incidents that marked the first violations of the cease-fire Hamas accepted on Sunday after the IDF began withdrawing its forces from Gaza.

via IAF strikes Kassam launchers in Gaza | Israel | Jerusalem Post.

To me, this illuminates a large characteristic of Hamas (and terrorists in general) that doesn’t ever get much play in the press. Forget that they’re Islamists and that they are possessed of the radical and violent idea that they shall one day by fire take over the earth and subject all inhabitants to Shar’ia law. Forget that. Forget also that they are backed by nation states like Iran and Syria and supported the world over in thoughts and deeds by ‘moderate’ muslims. Forget that. The most important thing to keep in mind when we read about groups like Hamas or Hezbollah or al-Qaeda is that they themselves are not nation-states. They don’t pretend to act as leaders of people who trust them with their protection like the leaders of the civilized world do. Instead, they are the equivalent of an organized (and heavily funded and armed) street gang. Imagine the Crips and the Bloods each being funded by Cuba and unleashed on the poor citizens of South Central Los Angeles.

The thing about nations and leaders of nations, is that beyond all the rhetoric, at some level, they act as protectors of their people. When leaders speak and act, they do so with the knowledge that what they say and do can and will have repercussions on the people whom they are sworn to protect–innocent civilians. This tempers them. Or at least, it should. This is why Iran, as crazy as it is, at least is trying to get the world to believe that they’re not developing means and methods to weaponize nuclear power. They’re lying, of course, but because they say the right things, the civilized world must engage. At least to a point.

Not so with Hamas as witnessed by their breaking of the ceasefire yesterday. They hurl rockets at Israel and stand at the border shaking their fists and sticking out their tongues. When they are slapped back, they hide among innocents and wait for the barrage to stop. When it does, they come out from their rat holes and start chucking rockets again. These people are the thug street warriors of nation states like Iran and Syria—who must on the surface appear to be civilized and engaging of diplomacy, but who secretly (and not so secretly) fund these gangs to wreak terror and destruction on Israel—using the poor civilians of Palestine as pawns.

Hamas does not care about protecting Palestinians. In fact, their goals and ambitions are fulfilled when as many Palestinians are put in jeopardy as possible.

This very important fact is lost in most reports from Gaza. Hamas is not a leader of a nation state. They are not there to protect Palestinians. Their job is to take Iran’s money and weapons, hold the Palestinians hostage, and extort concessions from Israel. That’s it. They are no more dignified than a street gang. They deserve no diplomacy with any serious nation on earth. They deserve only to be marginalized, starved out, and eliminated. They have no legitimate grievance. These are not Palestinians people rising up from the yolk of oppression like in Red Dawn and striking back at evil overlords. These are proxies of Iran who care nothing for the Palestinian cause (such as it is) except to exploit it for the greater good of Iran.