If someone was sending rockets on my house where my daughters were sleeping at night, I would do everything to stop it, and I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.
These aren’t my words — they’re Barack Obama’s. But I attach myself to this sentiment. Obama said this in July, after visiting the southern Israeli town of Sderot. Visits to Sderot will do that for you — make you see things clearly. For what it’s worth, this is how I see what’s happening in Gaza: In 2005, the Israeli government acceded to the longstanding Arab demand to withdraw its settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip. Almost as soon as the Israeli withdrawal was completed, Hamas and other Islamist factions in Gaza began firing rockets at Israeli civilians living in towns and kibbutzim inside the pre-1967 borders of Israel. Sometimes — and I’ve seen this with my own eyes — Hamas rocketeers fired on Israel from atop the ruins of the abandoned Jewish settlements.
No country in the world could afford to ignore such attacks. And no country would.
My emphases.
If Israel is just messing around here, seeking to prolong her own people’s anxiety and pain . . . wasting everyone’s time . . .
Otherwise, it isn’t over until Israel says it is. If the Israelis keep it up, send in the ground troops, and ignore international calls for Hamas to be allowed to harrass Israeli citizens at will, it could all be over but the talking in a matter of weeks.
Who then is going to condemn Israel if it hands a Hamas-free Gaza to Abbas and a coalition of responsible Arab states, such as those George Bush gathered at the White House after Hamas’ Summer of Blood? Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, sure. The “Arab Street,” whatever that is.
One problem. It would take an American statesman to facilitate an effective follow-on effort like that, a coalition of the willing but probably more like a coalition of the reluctant who can be prodded. A month may not be enough time even for a statesman like George Bush to pull it all together. That means we can only hope Barack Obama will be the kind of president who can craft a real and lasting Mideast peace out of the opportunity we can only hope Israel plans to give him.
What … you wanted easy?
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