Hanging On To The Tiger's Tail

As tanks and infantry move into the Gaza Strip, Israel has well and truly grabbed the tiger by his tail. The problem now is hanging on long enough to achieve a useful (from the Israeli perspective) outcome.

While there is no doubt that the IDF and the Government of Israel (GOI) have both repented of and learned from the debacle of the 2006 invasion of Lebanon, the operation into the Gaza Strip will be a dans du merde for the guys at the sharp end. It won't be a walk in the sun for the million or so Israeli civilians living within range of Hamas launched artillery rockets. The Geek doesn't envy what will come for any of them in the next few days or weeks.

In addition to the risks of combat in urban terrain against a very defiant, very, very well motivated and literally suicidal opponent, GOI and the people of Israel alike face the real potential of terror at home. Over and beyond those self-evident hazards, GOI must contend with the near universal reprobation of governments and well-meaning folks throughout the world, particularly in the West.

As the Geek has reviewed the tenor of protest against GOI for its air campaign, he has been struck by how much of it exonerates Hamas from all responsibility for the lives and well-being of the citizens under its domination and control. The utter lack of consideration for Hamas having chosen to launch and continue a slow motion war against Israel is nothing short of astonishing. Almost as mind boggling is the continued harping by Ban ki Moon and others of High Mind about the "humanitarian crisis" for the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.

There is no argument with the contention that the civilians of the Strip are in the midst of a genuine humanitarian crisis. There is also no arguing against the fact that the crisis is not of Israeli manufacture.

The crisis is of domestic origin. The crisis today as in the past has been the result of deliberate decision, carefully crafted policy by the local government.

In the old days, Gazans suffered because of Fatah's willingness to use civilian misery and death as a weapon against Israel. Now, it the result of Hamas' even more truculent approach. Hamas is a government of gunsels. It shot its way to power. Then it shot its own people as well as seeking to kill Israelis with rockets, mortars, IEDs, and suicide bombers. Now it hopes to "win" by assuring that so many die in the Strip that the High Minded, Lofty Thinking people in the West will apply sufficient pressure on GOI that the IDF is forced to let go of the tiger's tail.

As numerous previous posts demonstrate, the Geek is not an automatic supporter of GOI policies and practices. Neither is he in favor of the seemingly reflexive support offered to Israel by successive American administrations and Congresses.

This in no way obviates the necessity of acknowledging the onus of responsibility which must be placed on the Arab Muslim population of the Palestine region. The leadership of Fatah, like that of Hamas, acted without regard to the long term best interests of the people who propose to live in an independent country called "Palestine." The leaders of the Arab Muslim population of the disputed region missed the bus on too many occasions to list here--they habitually turned their backs as the bus passed by.

Hamas and other groups and governments have pursued assorted agendas with only one feature in common--the destruction of Israel. In the process, they have callously, cruelly used the hopes and fears, the bodies and lives, of the Arab-Muslim population. They have acted so as to pile the corpses of their own people, their own co-religionists, in heaps almost beyond measure. They have acted in concert with clerics of similar mind to warp Islam, to accentuate the most loathsome features of that religion into a psyops weapon to further the patterns of violent intolerance, absence of forgiveness, ruthless authoritarianism, and endless fear what the world now knows all too well as Islamism and jihadism.

The actions of these self-serving agenda riders have not only caused the local people but the rest of the world pain and misery, war and death, which could and would have been avoided absent these power-lusting pursuers of an impossible dream. Further, their actions, their words, have shredded any legitimate claims Islam may make to being the "religion of peace and tolerance."

Hamas and others from the same mold have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and a far worse crime for which they cannot be indicted before any human court--a crime against the spirits and faith of one and a half billion Muslims.

Even now Hamas will avoid a fair fight with the IDF. The gun thugs of Hamas whose training videos have been posted proudly will do whatever they can to hide and shoot from behind the cover of women and children. Hamas will stoop undoubtedly to the level of using women and children as suicide "volunteers."

All of this will be done in the hope and belief that the resulting carnage will compel the High Minded Lofty thinkers of the UN, the EU and the US to force GOI to call IDF off, to force the IDF to drop the tiger's tail.

When--not if--when that happens, Hamas will be more legitimate. It will be more in power. It's voice will ring louder in the halls of power throughout the Mideast.

This necessarily means that other entities such as Hezbollah and the sponsor of both Hezbollah and Hamas, Iran, will gain authority in a region and a culture where strength is prized above other characteristics. Iran will gain vis a vis the "conservative" states such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

At the same time Israel will be weakened. Its people will be at greater risk. Far afield GOI and the IDF will be seen as bluffers as well as bullies.

Worse, the human race will be the loser. Terror and violence will be emboldened. Islamists and jihadists will be encouraged. The war on terror will continue. The bodies will stretch beyond Mumbai, New York City, London, Madrid. Only the dead will be unafraid.

One can only hope (and pray if so inclined) that the High Minded, Lofty Thinking will not be as potent an ally as Hamas calculates. The Geek is a historian. Cynicism, the occupational disease of the historian, prevents him from being optimistic.

He hopes he is wrong. But, he won't bet the ranch on it.