Well I’m finally back to “writing” if that’s what I can call my ramblings for RTFA. I’m sure everyone who reads this has already heard from more legitimate sources that there is a crisis in the Gaza Strip. I’m here to give my biased opinion on the matter and *gasp* defend the Israelis. There’s been a LARGE world wide outcry condemning the Israelis, so I feel it’s important to try and add a little bit of reason to the emotional media. It really pisses me off when I see headlines like “Israel massacring Palestinians” without noting that there’s also the west bank where Palestinians and Israelis are solving their differences through diplomacy.

Yes I do care that civilians are being killed! I think it’s horrible. It’s estimated as of January 5th, 2009 that 480 people (expect those numbers to go up) have been killed and 25% were civilians. That means about 120 civilians have been killed versus the relatively few that Hamas has killed. However, that means 75% of those were Hamas, and I don’t feel bad about that at all.

A brief introduction to Hamas:
“HAMAS (in Arabic, an acronym for “Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamia” — Islamic Resistance Movement — and a word meaning zeal) is a radical Islamic fundamentalist organization which became active in the early stages of the intifada, operating primarily in the Gaza District but also in Judea and Samaria. Formed in late 1987 as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Various HAMAS elements have used both political and violent means, including terrorism, to pursue the goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel. Loosely structured, with some elements working clandestinely and others working openly through mosques and social service institutions to recruit members, raise money, organize activities, and distribute propaganda.”
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/hamas.htm

And why do I hate Hamas so much? I generally don’t like people who don’t like me:

“Sheik Ahmad Bahr, acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, declared during a Friday sermon at a Sudan mosque that America and Israel will be annihilated and called upon Allah to kill Jews and Americans “to the very Last One.” Following are excerpts from the sermon that took place last month, courtesy of MEMRI.

Ahmad Bahr began: “‘You will be victorious’ on the face of this planet. You are the masters of the world on the face of this planet. Yes, [the Koran says that] ‘you will be victorious,’ but only ‘if you are believers.’ Allah willing, ‘you will be victorious,’ while America and Israel will be annihilated. I guarantee you that the power of belief and faith is greater than the power of America and Israel. They are cowards who are eager for life, while we are eager for death for the sake of Allah. That is why America’s nose was rubbed in the mud in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Somalia, and everywhere.” …

“Oh Allah, vanquish the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them all, down to the very last one. Oh Allah, show them a day of darkness. Oh Allah, who sent down His Book, the mover of the clouds, who defeated the enemies of the Prophet, defeat the Jews and the Americans, and bring us victory over them.”
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1178020746583&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Hamas does not recognize Israel as a country and does not want a 2 state solution, they want to kill every Citizen of Israel and create a fundamentalist Muslim nation in place of Israel’s democracy, which is so evil because it has a separation of church & state, freedom of religion, women rights and gay rights. You know why Iran has no gay problem right? Well Iran funds Hamas to take care of the gay problem in Palestine too.

So Hamas has been launching rockets into Israel on a daily basis for years, rarely hitting anything important (like people) while Israel (for the most part) doesn’t react. When they do react, it’s big though, as this current crisis exemplifies. The main reason Hamas doesn’t kill huge amounts of people is not from sympathy or lack of will, it’s because of Israel’s superior technological advantage. There’s no doubt Israel’s military is one of the best in the world. Plus they have other advantages like superior warning systems and simple things like planting trees all along the roads so would-be attackers can’t see cars driving from a distance.

Let’s step back and examine how Israel came to “occupy” (they withdrew in 2005) the Gaza Strip. In 1967 the six-day war between Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria with support in weapons & troops from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria began. *An interesting side note, it came out later that the Soviets were providing false intel to Syria & Egypt to instigate a conflict.* Preceding the attack Egypt’s president Nasser expelled the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) from the Sinai Peninsula, who were there to keep the area demilitarized after the 1956 war. Egypt then declared that the Suez Canal was off limits to any ship from Israel, effectively strangling the Israeli economy. These events and others eventually led to the war.

The Aftermath:
Israel won the war, and won it convincingly. Afterward, Israel basically tripled the amount of land they controlled, which include the Gaza Strip and West Bank among other territory. Egypt got back the Sinai Peninsula in 1981 and most recently there is discussion to give Syria back the Golan Heights in return they cut ties with Iran & militant groups like Hezbollah. The “occupied” areas that Israel controls are essentially used as buffer zones from military attacks from legitimate armies. This has worked well as buffer zones, although they haven’t been able to stop guerrillas. Also, there’s the problem of the limbo these areas are in. It definitely makes it difficult for the civilians living there.

Hamas has always thought of itself as a guerrilla resistance and they’ve struggled to deal with their recent take-over of Gaza Strip after violently expelling Fatah in the summer of 2007. They’ve branched into more political roles such as forcing men to grow beards & burning down beer factories, but they still love blowing shit up whenever they can. Simply put, this has been a long time in the making. You can only bully a guy bigger than you for so long before they turn around and kick the crap out of you.

I think Israel’s mentality here is similar to America nuking Japan. The Japanese were not going to stop attacking, because of their cultural pride, unless they were completely devastated. In fact, there was still much debate on whether or not to surrender after the bombings! Some claim the actual reason Japan surrendered was because of the soviet invasion not the A-bomb. Japan finally realized they were going to lose and decided it was better to surrender to America than the Soviet Union. Regardless, now Japan and America are friends, so even though there were hundreds of thousands of civilians killed, the military operation was a success.

Hamas is similar to Japan during WWII in this way. This Israeli attack isn’t an eye for an eye; the idea is to completely overwhelm Hamas so they have to renew the truce they broke.

Conclusions:
I’m not convinced this operation is going to work out for Israel. Hamas is not demoralized enough to break down and the international outcry helps them. The Japanese didn’t get much sympathy from the world since they were killing millions of innocent people in a brutal fashion. Hamas hasn’t done enough damage to anger the world. Hamas is operating in a true guerrilla fashion, hiding among civilians and storing their weapons in Mosques, etc. They are operating with the assumption that the invasion will not continue much longer as the international pressure grows for Israel to stop. It’s a good strategy and will probably work. Sadly, I predict a loss for Israel.

*Update: Today Israel bombed a UN sponsored school that they claimed rocket fire came from. I have not found any good evidence (like a video) that a rocket attack came from the school, but I don’t doubt the Israeli assertion. So the number of civilians causalities has gone up from yesterday unfortunately, and the worst kind, kids. My opinion is there probably was a rocket launched from this school by Hamas just to draw a retaliation that would kill a bunch of kids and draw an international outcry. However, I could be completely wrong and these conclusions could be from my strong bias. Regardless, as I predicted, it looks like Hamas is winning the political battle even if they are losing the military one.

Also, The US and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have backed a French-Egyptian ceasefire proposal. However, the two main parties, Israel and Hamas have not accepted it. Israel seems more willing to accept the proposal than Hamas. A main factor is it must include a provision that Hamas stop smuggling & firing rockets, which they have yet to cede.