Hamas Starting A Wider War
After its raid on the Karni crossing yesterday, Hamas could have claimed it to be a mistake and stood down its militia. Rather than avoid a civil war in Gaza, however, Hamas expanded its attacks to include key figures of Fatah leadership, including Mahmoud Abbas, and fired rockets into Israel to create a wider war:
Hamas gunmen fatally shot six bodyguards from the rival Fatah movement and fired a barrage of rockets at southern Israel Wednesday, apparently attempting to draw Israel into the fierce Palestinian infighting as the Gaza Strip slid further into chaos. ...Fighting raged close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' heavily guarded compound, which also was targeted by Hamas mortar fire overnight. Abbas, a moderate from Fatah, was not present.
Early Wednesday, Hamas gunmen fired mortars and pipe bombs at the home of Fatah security chief Rashid Abu Shbak, before storming inside and killing six bodyguards, Palestinians security and medical officials said.
There can be no more pretense of working with Hamas on any solutions for peace. Even Fatah has figured that much out. Fatah's spokesman called all Hamas members "killers, from top to bottom," and told the press that they want to turn Gaza into "a new Somalia or Darfur." While the Gaza fighting lacks the ethnic tensions of either place, Hamas seems determined to make them just as chaotic and violent as both.
Fatah has a tough choice. While Hamas fires rockets into Israel, it can expect the Israelis to attack the rocket-launching positions. If it joins the attack on Hamas, then Fatah will look like collaborators. If they join Hamas, they will have to knuckle under to Hamas leadership, which is now trying to kill off their own leadership. If they do nothing, they will just make themselves easy targets for Hamas. Fatah is stuck in the middle.
The Gaza experiment has failed in one way, and succeeded in another. Ariel Sharon gave Gaza away without any strings and gave the Palestinians an opportunity to show they could govern themselves. They have failed spectacularly to do so, and instead have turned it into a terrorist haven for launching attacks against Israel and each other. It succeeded in showing what a joke "land for peace" always has been and the futility of granting statehood to a bunch of terrorist lunatics.
Oslo failed. Wye River failed. The road map failed. All of these failed because the Palestinians want the peace of annihilation rather than the peace of coexistence. They elected Hamas to power, and they are reaping the fruits of their choice. Quit enabling these terrorists with diplomatic initiatives and aid of any kind at all until they tire of the taste of blood and come to us for peace.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on May 16, 2007 6:23 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)
Comments (8)
Posted by TomB | May 16, 2007 6:51 AM
No more Mr. Nice Guy? I guess we should send them more cash, it usually worked. EU??, Anybody??
Posted by stackja1945![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| May 16, 2007 7:04 AM
"Quit enabling these terrorists with diplomatic initiatives and aid of any kind at all until they tire of the taste of blood and come to us for peace." When Ham Ass pigs fly.
Posted by sam pender![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| May 16, 2007 7:28 AM
"Oslo failed. Wye River failed. The road map failed. All of these failed because the Palestinians want the peace of annihilation rather than the peace of coexistence. They elected Hamas to power, and they are reaping the fruits of their choice. Quit enabling these terrorists with diplomatic initiatives and aid of any kind at all until they tire of the taste of blood and come to us for peace."
Nail, meet hammer. You hit it right on the mark there. People rant and rave about US support for Israel, yet those same hypocrites will turn a blind eye towards others' support for terrorism.
Let's read that part again:
"Oslo failed. Wye River failed. The road map failed. All of these failed because the Palestinians want the peace of annihilation rather than the peace of coexistence."
none of those political efforts supported by the Israelis failed because of Israeli efforts or US support for Israel. They all failed because the Palestinians prefer terrorism, because they seek genocide, and because OTHERS support the PALESTINIANS.
Me, I wonder how much of the trillions in oil revenue sent to Saudi etc and the billions given to Egypt all wind up supporting the terrorists in Palestine? Hmmm, where does more US money go: to the Arabs who fund the Palestinian terrorists or to the Israelis?
Oh, I'm sorry, did I use logic again? Didn't mean to drive off any Kossack trolls or DUmmies.
Posted by NoDonkey | May 16, 2007 7:49 AM
When will people learn that the way to deal with these people is not to persuade them, not to make them like us, not to give them carrots . . .
The way to deal with the Palestinian terrorists is to kill them all. Lay waste to their lands and salt the earth. Carpet bomb them. Send them all to Allah.
Why is that so difficult concept to grasp? Sure they have a few legitimate grievances. So what? So did the National Socialists. So did the Nipponese.
Didn't stop us from bombing Dresden, Berlin, Nagasaki and Hiroshima into ashes. Killed a bunch of fascists and those who survived lost the will to fight. They were broken. They became peaceful. They lost the will to resist.
The Palestinian will must be broken and that is not going to be done by arresting two or three of them at a time.
Posted by TomB | May 16, 2007 8:03 AM
NoDonkey,
The problem is that the extremist muslims are a little bit like the Terminators: they will never stop, it is their culture and nature. And we don't have the stomach (yet) to do what you are suggesting.
Posted by rbj | May 16, 2007 8:19 AM
I just wonder how much of this is Hamas' own doing, and how many of the shots (literally & figuratively) are being called by Hamas' biggest sponsors: the mullahs in Iran.
Posted by NoDonkey | May 16, 2007 8:33 AM
"they will never stop"
Sure they will. Dead men tell no tales and they sure don't kill anyone. Even dead muzzies.
"And we don't have the stomach (yet) to do what you are suggesting."
That we don't and that we haven't is exactly why the Islamofascist movement is where it's at. This should have been nipped in the bud years ago. All of this handwringing over civilian casualties has only increased the number of dead innocents, in the long run.
Not only the terrorists themselves should be targeted, but also the people who give them refuge and who support them. Make them more afraid of us than they are of the terrorists, and pretty soon the terrorists will be easy to find - they'll be the ones alone, out in the desert.
The Islamofascist movement cleverly preys on western niceties, guilt and weaknesses.
What are we waiting for? Until they have the means to kill millions of us? It's not as if they don't inform us daily that that is what they want to do. Are we waiting until the succeed to take them seriously? Is that a sensible strategy?
Hoping it will all go away and blaming ourselves, are only making the problem worse.
Do we need to fight all of the Muslims? No. There were lots of Shintoists and National Socialists before WWII. Few supporters survived the war. Funny how that happened.
Posted by Immolate | May 16, 2007 8:39 AM
The Palestinians don't want the peace of annihilation Ed. They want the war of annihilation. Those 20-50 males in Gaza today have lived their entire lives in a world where their every violent act has been rewarded, both monetarily and in street credit. Forty years of Pavlovian conditioning has made violence and hatred reflexive.
If Israel ceased to exist tomorrow, nothing would change except the total acreage under chaos and the designated scapegoat. Humiliation is the Palestinian's greatest fear, and never have a people been more thoroughly humiliated than the Palestians have been. They need an excuse for their failure to avoid admitting that it is their own shortcomings that cause it. If not Israel, the US will do fine, or Britain, or France, or whoever.