Conflicts in the Middle East: "Aftermath" of Operation Protective Edge

The evil and deceitful, luxury-loving Hamas political leader, Khaled Mashal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is premature to talk about the "aftermath" of Operation Protective Edge. There were withdrawals of ground troops and reorganization of IDF in Gaza at various points. A unilateral humanitarian cease-fire was declared by Israel to come into effect at 10 am on 4th Aug 2014 for duration of 7 hours. There were no signs of any negotiations between Israel and Hamas. The situation is one of "quiet for quiet". If Hamas attacks Israel then Israel will respond militarily.

According to the Israeli War Cabinet "All options are on the table". This means that entry of ground forces into bunkers of Gaza, where the Hamas leadership hides is a possibility.

The situation as it stands now appears to be a kind of a stale-mate, despite the severe beating that Hamas received. The leadership of Hamas is hidden in bunkers somewhere beneath the rubble in Gaza. It is uncertain whether the Mossad knows exactly where. Also the capability to launch missiles into Israel remains. All that one can hope for is that Hamas runs out of missiles because of Israel targeting the launching sites or depletion of missiles.

Khaled Mashal, the deceitful, political leader of Hamas, sits in a 5 star palace in Doha, Qatar, is out of touch with the devastation of the Gaza Palestinians. He probably does not care anyway as he has his own selfish agenda of enriching himself and cronying up to the Qatar leadership for funding Hamas. He is an evil despotic, political leader, who has reaped the most benefit in this tragic situation. He lives by his fantasies of destroying Israel by making it "Jude rein" (free of Jews).The fact that he is responsible for the deaths and destruction in Gaza does not seem to worry him. His lavish life-style in Qatar is still being maintained.

The tragedy that is befalling the people of Gaza is of catastrophic proportions. The suffering of innocent Palestinians as well as the high death rate boggles the mind. The Hamas use of human shields, in many cases, is well documented and denied by Hamas. UNRWA buildings and schools became weapon stores and launching pads for Hamas missiles. An attack on UNRWA school is a case in point. It is rather strange that rockets were fired from launching pads into Israel very close to UNRWA facilities in Gaza. The possibility that Hamas bribed UN officials not to disclose these launching pads or weapon stores in UN facilities cannot be ruled out. It may be prudent to investigate UN officials about this. How is it possible that this illegal activity is occurring in UNRWA schools in Gaza without the knowledge of the UN? Surely they must also be held accountable for the human shields employed in UNRWA facilities accounting for the tragedies occurring there. This ought to be investigated by an independent commission of inquiry.

The UN is capable of overlooking certain crimes especially if it is too close to their "distinguished" members political interests. The responsibility for this terrible tragedy lies on the shoulders of Hamas. This does not absolve Israel entirely either. Israel does appoint a commission of inquiry and if there are crimes, those responsible are brought to trial. Irrespective of how we view this tragedy of destruction and death, Hamas carried out aggression against Israel by launching missiles with the intention of killing Israelis. They had committed war crimes and had broken every rule in the book. The human shield tactic worked in their favor as it achieved the object of killing as many innocent people as possible in Gaza as well as arousing world opinion against Israel.

Israel is faced with a terrible enemy that is self-destructive. Hamas has been building tunnels for infiltrating into Israel to carry out terrorist attacks against Israelis. This has been going on since Hamas took over Gaza. There had been launching of missiles into the south of Israel for 14 years. Two operations were carried out to stop the threat of missiles and Israel had retaliated. World pressure built up against Israel at the end of each operation and they had to withdraw from Gaza. The hostilities and missile launches continued each time between each operation. Life for Israelis living in Ashkelon, Ashdod, Shderot as well as many community settlements in the south became intolerable. The IDF had to respond in order to halt this Hamas aggression. There was hardly any condemnation from the UN for these infringements. There was no pressure on Hamas to cease the missile launching. How short the memory is!!

On 5th August 2014, Hamas agreed to a cease-fire without preconditions which was brokered by Egypt. The cease-fire was for 72 hours. On Friday, 8th August 3014 at 8.00 am, Hamas did not agree to extension of the cease-fire and even before the end of 72 hours, Hamas could not resist and at 4.00 am they fired missiles into Israel. The sporadic firing of missiles has continued into southern Israeli towns. The IDF has responded. It appears that Hamas has notreached a point of surrendering and despite the heavy damage that the IDFinflicted on them, they are still capable of firing missiles and their motivation for doing so has not been harmed. Maybe they need a more severe pummeling than what they have received to date.

The Hamas aggression against Israel will continue sporadically. We are on the threshold of a war of attrition that can go on indefinitely. The IDF will retaliate and the reports from the Israeli side are that the IDF will step up its power of retaliation while missiles continue to be launched.

Meanwhile negotiations are still going on in Cairo without Israeli participation.

The demands of Hamas are unreasonable. They behave as if they have won the war. They want a removal of the Israeli blockade, a seaport, freedom of prisoners captured by Israel, an airport. Hamas is not prepared to disarm. The most they are prepared to give in exchange is a "tahida" a period of non-violence for as long as they (Hamas) want. Nothing is mentioned about recognizing Israel's right to exist or stopping their aggression against Israel.

Those double-standard, hypocritical, "humanists" who cry crocodile tears for the Hamas "Liberation Movement" and the Palestinian Gaza tragedy that Hamas created are raising their self-righteous eye-brows. They are saying: "There goes that mantra of Israel again - Hamas wanting to destroy Israel" as well as "Israel bringing up the subject of the world being blind to the torture and killings in Syria, Sudan, Libya and Iraq as an attempted justification for what the IDF has done in Gaza". “There are disproportionate retaliations against innocent Gazans". I got news for you, you self-righteous, sanctimonious, "humanists"! The mantra of Hamas wanting to destroy Israel is created by Hamas by their own admission and by their own actions - missiles, terror, suicide bombings, kidnappings and killings, of not only Israelis, but Palestinians as well, who oppose their methods of cruelty. The latter's fate is determined by a kangaroo court at best or large scale executions at worst, usually by torture. Sanctimonious humanists, has the message not sunk in? Double-standard "humanists" usually filter out truths that they do not wish to know. For them ignorance is bliss. It bolsters their pathetic world view.

Two rockets fired by Gaza militants slammed into southern Israel before dawn on Friday, heightening fears that a 72-hour truce nearing its end would not be ..

Another mantra by Hamas is that the occupation of Palestine began in 1948 and Israel must be destroyed, replaced by a Palestinian State. This is not an Israeli mantra but the ideology of Hamas.

If Hamas would annul their Charter and negotiate a peace treaty with Israel, recognizing Israel's right to exist, the siege on Gaza would be lifted and Israel would play its part with the rest of the world to rehabilitate Gaza so that the Gazans would have a future and would take its place alongside Israel as part of an independent Palestinian State including the West Bank. Hamas apparently does not want this, but I am sure that the Palestinian people do. They also want stability and an end to this terrible catastrophe that Hamas has brought upon them. Hamas abused the people of Gaza by using them as human shields as mentioned in this article and previous articles.

How can Israel lift the siege making it easier for lethal weapons from Iran and other countries sympathetic to Hamas to arrive unhindered into Gaza?

The choice of choosing the path to peace is in the hands of Hamas. Israel is prepared to negotiate peace.