Gabe Ende – Why are we Bombing the Hell out of Gaza?
Not because we have a passion for killing or wreaking destruction.
Not because we want to destroy the Palestinians.
Not because we are driven by revenge and have lost all compassion for human life.
Quite the contrary!!
Hamas has simply made it crystal clear that we will have no future unless their power structure in Gaza is irreparably crippled. They have shown us with the greatest clarity that no agreement with them is possible, that their commitment to our destruction is absolute, that they will not refrain under any conditions from acts of terror against us, that their thirst for our blood is for them a religious obligation of the highest order, that there is no room in their eyes for both Jews and Muslims in the entirety of the land “from the river to the sea”.
We convinced ourselves again and again in the past that we could forge a modus vivendi of one kind or another with them –but to no avail. If we are to have a future here, if there is to be any possibility of Israeli-Palestinian compromise and rapprochement, Hamas must lose its stranglehold on the Gaza Strip.
These cynical jihadists, whose callous disregard of Palestinian lives has led them to place their military installations under mosques, hospitals, and schools as well as in parks and residential buildings, have forced us to, unfortunately, endanger civilian lives as we fight to destroy their military infrastructure. We don’t revel in the sight of dead Palestinian children. Hamas, on the contrary, doesn’t give a shit. They even shoot those seeking to escape southward.
That is why we must press on, despite the collateral civilian casualties and the vicious ramifications of the protests. AND PRESS ON WE WILL BECAUSE WE HAVE NO ALTERNATIVE. Should we agree to a cease-fire before the hostages are released, we will never see them again because Hamas will demand impossible conditions for setting them free– such as “ending the siege and allowing us to build a port”, through which Iran, Russia, and North Korea will ship thousands upon thousands of sophisticated weapons to them. The demand for a cease-fire is thus not a means of curbing violence but actually of monstrously intensifying it.
I have no illusion that the ideologically simplistic “anti-Israel International” who loves to hate us will pay attention to what I am saying. I’m hoping, however, that open, intellectually honest people with a commitment to decent human values will appreciate the necessity of our policy.
We dare not cave in to the demands of the short-sighted or openly hostile demonstrators. They may curse us with venom but we finally have an opportunity to smash Hamas and dare not pass it up. We do not have a death wish. Is this so difficult to understand?
