We Share A Common Enemy In The Gaza Crisis

The crisis in the Middle East continues into its second week and the hostilities will be escalating, as Israel gears up for a ground invasion into Gaza.  President Bush has correctly declared that Hamas’ rocket attacks which started the fighting are an act of terror.  The president is right because Hamas is a terrorist organization, plain and simple.  Palestinians use Gaza as a de facto base for its cowardly attacks on Israel and its citizens as human shields and cover for the same.   Their hatred for Israel is the sole basis for their existence and their goal is its extermination and for a Palestinian state to take its place.  Their tactics are simple: kill as many Israelis, inflict as much suffering on them as possible.  Alan Dershowitz sums it up in his New Year’s Eve piece:

The rockets are designed exclusively to maximize civilian deaths, and some have barely missed schoolyards, kindergartens, hospitals, and school buses. But others hit their targets, killing more than a dozen civilians since 2001, including in February 2008 a father of four who had been studying at the local university. These anticivilian rockets have also injured and traumatized countless children.

The residents of Sderot were demanding that their nation take action to protect them. But Israel’s postoccupation military options were limited, since Hamas deliberately fires its deadly rockets from densely populated urban areas, and the Israeli army has a strict policy of trying to avoid civilian casualties.

The firing of rockets at civilians from densely populated civilian areas is the newest tactic in the war between terrorists who love death and democracies that love life. The terrorists have learned how to exploit the morality of democracies against those who do not want to kill civilians, even enemy civilians.

Israel is not a terrorist organization and as such, tries to wage a surgical war, warning civilians in Gaza to flee before any retaliatory strikes.  This could be to Israel’s detriment, but the point is that Israel is responding in self defense; its goal is not to harm civilians but to destroy the Isalmists that are out to destroy Israel, includingits innocent civilians.  I don’t claim to be an expert on the Middle East, but there really shouldn’t be any trouble figuring out who’s right and who’s wrong here.  Krauthammer notes today:

Some geopolitical conflicts are morally complicated. The Israel-Gaza war is not. It possesses a moral clarity not only rare but excruciating

…

Nor does Hamas conceal its strategy. Provoke conflict. Wait for the inevitable civilian casualties. Bring down the world’s opprobrium on Israel. Force it into an untenable cease-fire — exactly as happened in Lebanon. Then, as in Lebanon, rearm, rebuild and mobilize for the next round. Since its raison d’etre is the eradication of Israel, there are only two possible outcomes: the defeat of Hamas or the extinction of Israel

It’s a vicious, deadly cycle:  Israel agrees to a truce.  Hamas (or Hezbollah in Lebanon) instigate and provoke retaliation.  Israel repsonds.  Terrorists cry foul, the world condemns Israel, the powers that be do nothing, and the cycle begins again.  The Arab world is pathetically comparing the Israelis to Nazis (Gateway Pundit has more on that), trying to shame the world into coming down on Israel yet again.  And we don’t need to look far from home.  The liberal extremist fringe of the blogosphere and in the media, and even in our own Congress are alluding to atrocities committed by Israel in defending itself.   

Liberal extremist and progressive favorite, Dennis Kucinich writes a letter to the (ahem) United Nations calling for action:

Today I sent a letter to Secretary General Ban ki-Moon urging the United Nations to establish an independent inquiry of Israel’s war against Gaza. The attacks on civilians represent collective punishment, which is a violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The perpetrators of attacks against Israel must also be brought to justice, but Israel cannot create a war against an entire people in order to attempt to bring to justice the few who are responsible.

Sounds great, Congressman.  While you attempt to cajole the UN into even attempting to accomplish something in this crisis by enforcing international rules of engagement on Israel, Hamas continues to lob missles there.  Good luck in getting Hamas to adhere to Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. 

This is the essence of the inherent flaw in liberal thinking on issues of foreign policy.  They whine about the collateral damage and death incurred by Israel defending their own civilians, yet don’t see the hypocrisy of their whining.  These people are TERRORISTS.  They don’t abide by international laws of warfare.  They couldn’t care less what the United Nations says or thinks of them.  These people are inherently evil, who wish death upon innocents in Israel, as well as the United States.  The same ideology that Hamas subscribes to is the same ideology which led to the slaughter of three thousand innocent Americans on 9-11.  They share the same goal: the murder and ultimate destruction of Israelis and its supporters, namely Americans.  They want us dead.  Not just our political leaders.  Not just our military… EVERYONE.  I for one, remember who were dancing in the streets of Palestines on that day in 2001:

 

Palestinians celebrating the death of innocent Americans.  The same Palestinians who are now screaming about Israeli aggression.  There is nothing morally complicated here.  Israel’s enemy tonight, is our enemy too.  Islamist extremism is our enemy and has been for at least seven years.  It’s not complicated to understand that Hamas needs to be destroyed.

(UPDATE)

Israel Invades Gaza…via Hot Air

Another One Bites The Dust In Gaza

(UPDATE II)

While Gaza burns, Obama is still silent.  Breitbart agrees (via Instapundit)