Israel and Gaza (and now Lebanon)
Let's see if I get this right. The Palestinians, the poster children for victimhood (via great PR and gullible Westerners) got their way. The intifadahs were partially about having Israel get out of Gaza (legally captured as war spoils during the Israeli - Arab wars). Israel blinked and gave in - they cleared out. Gaza was finally in the hands of the Palestinians. Peace broke out.
Right?
Er, not so fast. Almost as soon as the settlements were abandoned (with synagogues treated with the respect I expected from that nascent nation-state). the Palestinians rushed in, set up, and started shelling and aiming rocket attacks at nearby Israeli towns. Huh?
The land given up? Bit what about the peace? The chance to finally build the Palestinian state they have wanted for these many decades? Haven't the Palestinians rush to begin to build a new successful society?
Right...look who they voted in - Hamas
One has to wonder what were they thinking? Voting in people who wanted to destroy Israel and then complained when the rest of the world didn't want to support them? One has to wonder about a group of people gleefully destroying a multi-million complex of hi-tech greenhouses. These were the ones that the Israelis were going to raze until American donors (e.g., Bill Gates) raised the cash to purchase them. The reasoning was that they could be used to jump start an industry badly needed by the Palestinian people. But, they trashed it. And continued the shelling, the war.
Now, with the IDF pulled back into Israel, the Palestinians via Hamas stage an attack and kidnap a soldier. Then have the chutzpah to complain when Israel demands him back....and are just so surprised when the IDF rolls in to retrieve him. Olmert repeatedly asked for the soldier to be returned, and Hamas thumbed their noses at him. So the IDF keeps rolling in, and Hamas refuses to fork him over, demanding prisoner exchanges.
Why should Israel do this? This was an attack, they are retaliating. This is now war, with Hizbullah doing the same from Lebanon. IF Hamas hadn't attacked, the IDF would not have gone in. This is not rocket science, this is simple cause and effect. However, the Palestinians refuse to recognize their own complicity in this action, hoping instead that their PR machine would would once again make Israel the bad guys.
Their problem is that it doesn't seem to be working as well this time. The fraud has now been exposed.
Bottom line - the Palestinians do not want just Gaza and the West Bank. Their charter explicitly states they want it all - no more Israel. They are supported by Syria and by Iran via Hamas and Hizbullah as proxies.
Israel finally did what many said not to - exchanged land for peace. All they got in return was a finger in the eye.
Israel is now in the process of breaking that finger......and I support it. It is time for the West, especially in Europe to see this as yet another attack on a legitimite democracy, formed at the behest of the UN. Within Israel, a war of Islam versus the secular West is now hot. Diplomatic efforts are not going to work here - the currency in the Middle East is force - simple, naked force. And Israel is no longer in a mood to talk.
We too are in a war. Ours is a cold one where the components consist of PR, Western guilt, lack of a Western spine, and a lack of understanding of the relationship of the Islamic of religion, culture, and government (the latter three are not just entwined, they are literally one).
Will we wake up in time? And will the West support Israel?
