7th Rangers: Why Was There War in Gaza? Hamas considers all of Israel occupied, illegitimate, a cancer, a crime against humanity by Charles Krauthammer
Fighting Seventh
The Fighting Rangers On War, Politics and Burning Issues
Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Why Was There War in Gaza? Hamas considers all of Israel occupied, illegitimate, a cancer, a crime against humanity by Charles Krauthammer
Friday, November 23, 2012
Why was there an IsraelāGaza war in the first place? Resistance to the occupation, say Hamas and many in the international media. What occupation? Seven years ago, in front of the world, Israel
pulled out of Gaza. It dismantled every settlement, withdrew every
soldier, evacuated every Jew, leaving nothing and no one behind. Except
for the greenhouses in which the settlers had grown fruit and flowers
for export. These were left intact to help Gazaās economy ā only to be
trashed when the Palestinians took over.
Israel then declared its border with Gaza to be an international
frontier, meaning that it renounced any claim to the territory and
considered it an independent entity. In effect, Israel had created the
first Palestinian state ever, something never granted by fellow Muslims ā
neither the Ottoman Turks nor the Egyptians who brutally occupied Gaza
for two decades before being driven out by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day
War. Israel wanted nothing more than to live in peace with this
independent Palestinian entity. After all, the world had incessantly
demanded that Israel give up land for peace. It gave the land. It got no peace.
The Gaza Palestinians did not reciprocate. They voted in Hamas, who
then took over in a military putsch and turned their newly freed
Palestine into an armed camp from which to war against Israel. It has
been war ever since. Interrupted by the occasional truce, to be sure. But for Hamas a truce ā hudna ā is simply a tactic for building strength for the next round. It is never meant to be enduring, never meant to offer peace. But why, given that there is no occupation of Gaza anymore? Because
Hamas considers all of Israel occupied, illegitimate, a cancer, a crime
against humanity, to quote the leaders of Iran, Hamasās chief patron and
arms supplier. Hamasās objective, openly declared, is to āliberateā ā
i.e., destroy ā Tel Aviv and the rest of pre-1967 Israel. Indeed, it is
Hamasā raison dāĆŖtre.
Hamas first killed Jews with campaigns of suicide bombings. After
Israel built a nearly impenetrable fence, it went to rockets fired
indiscriminately at civilians in populated areas. What did Hamas hope to gain from this latest round of fighting, which
it started with a barrage of about 150 rockets into Israel? To formally
translate Hamasās recent strategic gains into a new, more favorable
status quo with Israel. It works like this: Hamasās new strength comes from two sources. First, its new rocketry,
especially the Fajr-5, smuggled in from Iran, that can now reach Tel
Aviv and Jerusalem, putting 50 percent of Israelās population under its
guns.
Second, Hamas has gained strategic strength from changes in the
regional environment. It has acquired the patronage and protection of
important Middle Eastern states as a result of the Arab Spring and the
Islamist reversal in Turkey. For 60 years, non-Arab Turkey had been a reliable ally of Israel. The
vicious turnaround instituted by its Islamist prime minister, Recep
Erdogan, reached its apogee on Monday when he called Israel a terrorist
state.
Egypt is now run by Hamasās own mother organization, the Muslim
Brotherhood, of which Hamas is simply the Palestinian wing. And the emir
of Qatar recently visited Gaza, leaving behind a promise of a cool $400
million. Hamasās objective was to guarantee no further attacks on its leaders
or on its weaponry, launch sites, and other terror and rocket
infrastructure. And the lifting of Israelās military blockade, which
would allow a flood of new and even more deadly weapons. In other words,
immunity and inviolability during which time Hamas could build
unmolested its arsenal of missiles ā until it is ready to restart the
war on more favorable terms.
Yet another hudna, this one brokered and guaranteed by Egypt
and Turkey, regional powers Israel has to be careful not to offend. A
respite for rebuilding, until Hamasās Gaza becomes Hezbollah South,
counterpart to the terror group to Israelās north, with 50,000 Iranian-
and Syrian-supplied rockets that effectively deter any Israeli
preemptive attack.
