Thus far, throughout the entirety of the Israeli response to the escalations by Hamas called Defensive Shield, the demands from around the world were almost universally to call for Israel to implement a ceasefire even if said ceasefire had to be observed unilaterally by Israel while Hamas would be permitted to continue launching rockets and attempting infiltrations to inflict terrorist strikes. The result from heeding this worldly advice and counsel resulted in an additional number of IDF casualties, both fatalities and serious, life-threatening injuries. When the world was not calling for an Israeli ceasefire, they were insisting that Israel resume the peace process with Mahmoud Abbas who presumably leads the unity government which presumably includes Hamas possibly also Islamic Jihad as if either of these two hardened terrorist entities would heed any agreement entered into and agreed by Israel and Mahmoud Abbas. The reason behind Hamas and Islamic Jihad enjoining to form a unity government with the Palestinian Authority was tactical as by doing so their leadership became absolved of any responsibility for the ensuing acts which included the abduction and murder of the three Israeli teens before the ramping up of their rocket assaults on Israel which led to this conflict. The United States, most of Europe and the European Union all took the bait and included in their demand and advice that Israel meet with Mahmoud Abbas as only resuming the peace process and establishing an independent and viable Palestinian state can resolve the reasons behind and motivating such terrorist and military attacks as witnessed from out of Gaza by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the other terrorists for over a month. Every one of the six ceasefires entered into by Israel, four originating in Egyptian, United Nations, European Union or United States offered terms and two unilaterally offered by Israel, were used by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and allies to attack Israel during the calm without fear of intervention or immediate response. The obvious message from these abortive efforts is that nonviolence, peace and passive talk rather than use of arms will be met by force of arms and further attempts aiming to murder as many Israeli civilians as well as military and destruction of Israeli infrastructure as possible without threat of suffering serious and immediate counterattacks by Israel. These good-hearted and well-meaning leaders of the United Nations, European Union and United States Administration all had one last piece of wisdom they insisted on imparting; that the only possibility for resolving the current conflict is through political methods consisting of talks and finding some common ground and that Israel could never hope to find a military solution to the threats from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the other terrorists as violence has never solved anything.
The obvious flaw in their logic and their duplicity of holding Israel to a different standard than they hold themselves or each other is evidenced by the study of history, ancient or recent. Everywhere one looks throughout history every occasion where nations faced off over vital and deep differences the ensuing efforts have always been pure diplomacy and never a call to arms. Well, not so much as we can illustrate with a simple look at historical examples. Before the beginning of World War II there were efforts between Britain and France to reach some agreement and compromise with Germany. Their efforts to find some common ground went to some extremes, especially if you lived in Czechoslovakia which was sliced in half permitting the Germans to swallow the entirety of the nation in two easily digested servings virtually with the accommodations of Britain and France, two friends of Czechoslovakia who were bonded by mutual defense treaties to come to the others’ aid in case of foreign invasion. Yes, those treaties are so helpful when somebody decides to eviscerate the treaty with the hot fire of military invasion. Eventually, when Germany attempted to swallow one nation too many and that nation was Poland, the allies of France and Britain finally realized their errors and that talks had failed and war had come. Had Britain and France honored their treaty with Czechoslovakia and demanded that Germany not transgress beyond their border and threaten their neighboring nations they might have stymied German aspirations of conquest before Germany had constructed a military force which threatened the peace of the entire world. So, the muted response of all talk and the promise of no use of military force really succeeded at establishing, as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said so succinctly, “My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.” What followed was a direct result of the refusal to use military force to prevent the aggressive hopes of conquest by attempting to feed this urge hoping to satiate the hungry alligator hoping it would not require subsequent feeding. They will always require subsequent feeding and the end result is always greater carnage. The only solution is not to feed the alligator your neighbor but to stand firm with your neighbor and restrain the alligator within his swamp and prevent its feeding outside its recognized boundary. Allowing the alligator to taste a new food source can only implant in it a desire to continue to consume that new taste and will eventually have the alligator come for you. Such has been the lesson repeatedly told throughout history.
The truth is that the only solution to the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and terrorist support threats is the military response. Attempting to bruise the terror forces of Gaza and bloodying them sufficiently to force their retreat and agreement to a cessation of hostilities promising quiet for the future has resulted in a resumption of violence usually within a few months. Then the raining of rockets and other acts of violence would inevitably begin to escalate until Israel again saw no alternative than to remind the Gaza terror forces the strength and overwhelming power the IDF can unleash and then we repeat the smashing bruises given to the Gazan terrorists and the suffering and deaths of innocents whose only offense was their electing Hamas to govern them and permit the terrorists to build a terror infrastructure and tunnels in which the terrorists seek safety from Israeli weaponry while leaving the civilians vulnerable on the surface and often even corralled into harm’s way. This cycle has been repeating ever since the initial violence between the hardened terrorists of Hamas pulled off a murderous coup against the Palestinian Authority replacing them as the ruling force in Gaza. This was followed by a senseless murdering of Fatah members in a purging of any opposition. Since then the terror forces within Gaza has been unleashed on Israel every two to three years no matter how severe the Israeli response each time. But still the similarity between these actions and the repeated attacks by Germany during the buildup to World War II are not witnessed or discerned by the leaders of the Western world who are willfully blind again refusing to learn from history and demanding the world repeat that disastrous history one more time. Germany did not enter an agreement, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, before having revealed their intents through definitive actions before invading Poland with the Soviet Union dividing up the overmatched Polish army which relied on cavalry against armored columns of the Soviets and Germans. The Germans absorbed Austria before they swallowed up Czechoslovakia. After incorporating the military equipment and those soldiers who desired to remain and serve in the German army, then an invigorated and strengthened German military juggernaut rolled across Poland from the west as the Soviet Union rolled across from the east and Poland was swallowed up in an unbelievably rapid and total eviscerating assault. The allies had no time to react and assist Poland but that was the step which triggered World War II.
Meanwhile, not learning from even history less than a century old, there are demands that Israel utilize worlds instead of bullets to find a resolution to the Gaza threats. Never mind the fact that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the other terror forces have ignored every syllable, let alone each word, and have answered every attempt at ceasing the violence by escalating their levels of violence. Never mind that there were Israeli casualties which predated the first Israeli offensive act nor that tens of thousands of rockets and mortars since the last conflict back only a couple of years in 2012 into Israel. The world and its media never notice any actions which preface the initial Israeli defensive response to those assaults and their effects in Israeli blood. The only injuries which exist are those of the Palestinians and until there are Palestinian casualties with which to minimize any Israeli losses, the media remains silent. Since the Israeli response to the greatly escalated rocket fire out of Gaza the news reports have mostly ignored the other terrorist criminal act in which three Israeli teens were abducted and murdered, though there have been some mentions of the Palestinian youth who was murdered horrifically in revenge, the Israeli youths responsible for that act have been arrested and will face long prison terms for their vile actions while the three Palestinians who Israel has identified and requested their arrest from the Palestinian Authority, as they had fled into autonomous Palestinian areas completely controlled both civil and security responsibility placing them beyond Israeli reach, the Palestinian authorities have claimed to be unable to arrest the suspects. The media just desires to be permitted to return to their normal news coverages and end their coverage in Gaza as it can be dangerous, though for reasons you may not suspect as detailed in this report by French 24 news correspondent’s report by Gallagher Fenwick embedded somewhere in central Gaza as he describes. If the video fails, it can be viewed on YouTube and is most definitely worth the time and effort as it makes everything understandable and so vividly clear beyond most anything I have ever witnessed.
Sometimes the launch of a single rocket, or possibly three rockets fired, can bring clarity and focus beyond words. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, well, this video is worth the thousands of pictures it compiles and the words that would imply. The truth is had the world’s media bothered to honestly cover the periods of so-called quiet where Israel and the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) are standing down while Hamas and cohorts in arms launch rockets and set off improvised explosive devices (IEDs) attempting to kill whoever is the unfortunate individual or car load which pass by the device first. Just today there were two terror attacks in Jerusalem which might get coverage as the reporters are already making their reports so they might include these stories. The first attack consisted of a Palestinian man who resides in Jerusalem driving a frontend loader backhoe into a bus and utilizing the backhoe to force the bus onto its side. As result there was one fatality and six people injured and requiring hospitalization. The bus was fortunately arriving at its first stop and thus nearly empty though the bus driver was among those requiring hospitalization. Within the next hour there was a shooting of an Israeli man in the stomach at the entrance to the Har Hatzofim (Mount Scopus) tunnel. The young man has also been hospitalized and is in moderate to serious conditions. The fear is that these two attacks could signal the beginning of a second front with the Palestinians from east Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria (West Bank) are responding to the Hamas and Iranian leadership’s insistence that they start a third Intifada to compliment the efforts in Gaza and try to overwhelm Israeli resources and capabilities. The odds of success is next to nothing but would definitely ramp up the violence and potentials for casualties and more breathless coverage of the plight of the Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli forces attempting to restore order. A second front will simply lead to additional demands that Israel return to the peace negotiations rather than attempt to restore calm. After all, the entire problem is that Israelis, for reasons which appear to escape most of the rest of the world, actually believe that order needs to be restored before even considering the solutions demanded by those who have in the past only managed to prolong the disastrous status-quo. Imagine that.
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 