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Jewish World Review Nov. 20, 2012/ 7 Kislev, 5773 The Israel/Hamas Endgame: An 'Acceptable' Number of Missile By Arnold Ahlert
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
There was a political cartoon published a few years ago that neatly summed up the expectations of the so-called International Community with respect to Islamic terror. It showed two prize fighters and a referee. One of the fighters represented the United States, and the other represented al-Qaeda.
In the first frame of the cartoon, the referee is going over a long a list of rules that the American fighter must abide by during the match. In the second frame, the ref turns to the al-Qaeda fighter. "You can do anything you want," he says. As the latest Israeli-Hamas confrontation looks on the verge of ramping up, absolutely nothing has changed.
In 2005, in a gesture that falls under the heading, "no good deed goes unpunished," Israel gave the Gaza strip to the Palestinians, uprooting thousands of Jewish settlers in the process. What did they get in return? The rise of Hamas, whose charter called for the annihilation of the Jewish State, after it defeated the PLO, and assumed control of Gaza in 2007. More than 8,000 missiles shot across the border into Israeli towns since 2009, including more than 800 this year alone. For those of you unburdened by a public school education, that comes to just over two missiles per day, seven days a week, 365 day a year.
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Israel is held to the highest standard of all, meaning that a couple of missiles lobbed their way on a daily basis is no reason to get excited. Don't believe it? Here is, by far, the stupidest question asked by a journalist this year, yet it provides invaluable insight as to what animates the worldview of the "deeper' thinkers. MSNBC host Mara Schiavocampo, in an interview with Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren posed this stunner:
Or not. Those who live in a world of moral equivalency, where Hamas thuggery and Israeli efforts to blunt it are two sides of the same coin, are willfully oblivious to such realities. Thus, for the umpteenth time, the following formula will be followed:
1. Hamas perpetrates terror until Israel reaches a breaking point
2. Israel responds with surgical strikes
3. The Hamas death toll mounts, due in large part to the reality that they put their ordinance among the civilian population
4. Any ramp up of Israeli military action triggers the International Community's condemnation of Israel's "disproportionate response"
5. Israel backs off, and a "truce" is secured.
6. The International Community stops paying attention
7. Hamas resumes firing missiles into Israel, and the whole cycle begins all over again
The only element that remains absolutely off the table? Victory. Israel must never be allowed to completely eliminate Hamas's capacity to launch missiles at Israeli men, women and children. That, above all else, is the sacred status quo that must never, ever be breached under any circumstances. In other words, the end game here comes down to one question: according to the "ethical" standards of the International Community, what is the "acceptable" number of Hamas missile launches Israel must endure in order to achieve peace?
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© 2012, Arnold Ahlert |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||||||||||
