“Finally, we should remember the aims of the two sides. Israel’s goal is very modest: security for its citizens, no cross-border attacks. Hamas’s goal is the destruction of Israel, wiping out its citizens, revolution throughout the Middle East, treating women as chattel, and the creation of what it considers to be Allah’s government on earth.”

“Knowing that, you can decide which side to support.”

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………..In all honesty, that’s the crux of the matter and nothing else was needed to be run up. You’re hitting on the little things of the past, when the little things are what keeps bringing Israel to this point again and again and again…. that they must fight to some degree and any degree will bring the weight of the world down on them hard.

So then, when will enough of the little things be enough ?

Israel has a monumentally difficult choice to make and they have to make it within weeks, maybe days and with absolute confidence. Because as anyone with half a grain of proper education knows that our people are of the eternal mindset that celebrates life, not death.

The endgame to all this is rather simple. It’s an all or nothing proposition. Israel needs to go back in and wipe out Hamas quickly and with as much force as possible. I also realize this means going after everything that moves or is standing higher than a half-meter. They honestly need to level Gaza and start over with the property back in Israeli hands and governance.

This is because Hamas is not going to stop, not even for a second….. and if there’s one of these animals still remaining, that’s one too many.

Right now, Hamas is re-arming. More than likely with extra help and much better munitions from Iran, Syria and everyone else who wants the Jews gone.

It’s NORMAL for them using their own as shields and targets before. They see absolutely nothing amiss to that. But just wait though…… Next, they’ll start chaining their own relatives to their homes and others to strategic sites, all of it IN PLAIN SIGHT of IDF and the world ; Using those places for staging points, ammo dumps and outright firing emplacements. Even worse, many times this will be with the full knowledge and willingness of their own people to be that way, because of their religious belief of a death-is-life mindset.

They know that Israel will think more than twice about launching on those places because of “innocents”.

Hence the quandary….. GO and have the rest of the Muslim world quite probably attack as retaliation, or NO GO and Hamas will continue in place and rebuild to the point of being able to do catastrophic damage with help from those who want Israel’s end and all Jews eliminated.

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I’m now fairly proud of myself…….. A quick proof-reading before posting made me realize I did this without bringing up all the aid from America….. that may or may not go away tomorrow after Noon Eastern Time.

Cheers !

You have allready gottten three things wrong, in the first paragraph alone.
It’s like when I checked my childrens homework, if I found three things wrong, I had them redo it.
No disrespect but,
Please go back and try again.

Ever watch Palestinian tv?

Ever invite people who want to kill you into your house?

No offense, but your analysis fails to take into account the true nature and goals of HAMAS. A couple of years ago, people like you said “just pull out of Gaza” (e.g. give the Palestinians their dignity” and things will work out fine.

Now you assert opening the border makes sense?

Wow. On redstate, your comment reads like a caricature.

As far as giving them their dignity back, they’ve never had any. The “Palestinians” have never been anything more than a bunch of wandering, murdering thugs. The only thing they should have to look forward to is stopping the rocket/suicide attacks or dying.

Golda was right.

The Palestinian Arabs have missed one opportunity after another to achieve peace with an Israeli society which has been willing to compromise territorily since its founding.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and all we’ve seen since then are internal terror, violence and thousands of rockets launched indisriminately into Israel in order to terrorize its civilian population. Egypt made peace when they figured out they could not win. Jordan did the same as soon as it was politically feasible. When the West makes clear that the Palestinians have lost and that the longer they wait in suing for peace, the less they are going to receive, we’ll see them make peace as well.

The Israel-Palestine conflict is not so simple that it can be reduced to there being a bunch of crazy people next door. Gaza is very, very poor (the $2 billion damages is 3 times the GDP of the country. Imagine someone doing $30 trillion dollars worth of damage to the USA) – certainly not helped by Hamas, but Israel has also decreased the flow of aid into the country. Stopping aid to the country will not help – Hamas is backed by Iran, so they will not go hungry. Again, the victims will be the Palestinians, and this will give Hamas more of a reason to vilify Israel and the west. If your children are dead and you are starving, it wouldn’t be hard to talk you into strapping a bomb onto yourself to kill some of the people who you perceive as doing this to you.

Israel needs to give Palestine its dignity back. They should open the borders to more aid, and I think that they should offer a sizeable donation to assist with the repair, and an apology to the Palestinian people. Hamas is a resistance movement – they exist because the Palestinians feel like prisoners, feel like they have nothing to lose. If suddenly the Palestinians are starting, just a little, to look forward to a brighter future, Hamas will start to fall apart.