Gaza: There IS a Third Choice

Gaza: There IS A Third Choice
by Gerald A. Honigman

Given that leopards don't change their spots, and Hamas and Co. will never recognize the rights of Jews to a resurrected state in Israel, regardless of size, we're now ready to proceed...

Ever since Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza more than a decade ago, tens of thousands of rockets, mortars, incendiary kites, and other forms of Arab terror have been the response it has received. Israel has maintained a naval blockade to try to prevent large quantities of heavy armaments from arriving from abroad. Indeed, Iranian ships have been intercepted with such cargo aboard. And too many weapons and materials used to kill Jews are still coming in via sophisticated tunnels built with the millions of dollars coming in that were supposed to be spent on improving the lives of Gaza's people instead.

For Israel, its withdrawal from previously Egyptian-occupied Gaza"”taken in the June "˜67 War, started by a succession of serious Egyptian and other Arab aggressive actions and existential threats which finally led to an Israeli preemptive strike"”Gaza was a test, one the Arabs flunked badly.

Had Gaza responded with efforts at state-building, investments in infrastructure, education, and the overall welfare of its people instead of simply viewing Israel's withdrawal as a sign of weakness which brought Arab rockets closer to Israeli civilian targets, life would be very different for all by now in very positive ways.

Whatever...Gaza is what it is.

So, Israel must deal with things as they are and must close its collective ears to the world's assorted hypocrites, many of whom would have leveled Gaza years ago.

What other nation would be expected to put up with what the Jews have without taking steps to end this situation once and for all?

Israel has, up until now, acted as if it has only two choices.

Firstly, it frequently opts to respond to Arab terror with tit-for-tat strikes in which it feels it must locate the exact perpetrators of the missile strikes, incendiary attacks (which have set tens of thousands of acres of Israel ablaze), and so forth, or targets allegedly important empty buildings or open fields. The Arabs either laugh or yawn...

Tell me, what incentive does Hamas have to halt its attacks with this approach?

In contrast, when Arabs have faced somewhat similar headaches, they solved them from afar causing massive civilian casualties--bombing fellow Arab enemies from the air or blasting them with artillery...not risking the lives of their own 19-year infantrymen on the ground, as Israel repeatedly does to try to minimize civilian casualties. And have you ever heard of the Anfal campaign against the Kurds?

Think what the Syrians have been doing since the days of Papa Assad and his "Hama Solution," and King Hussein of Jordan's handling of the combined PLO and Syrian attempt to overthrow him in "Black September" 1970. Before the tragedy of what's happening today in Syria and throughout the "Arab"/Muslim world, scores--if not hundreds--of thousands of Arabs were slaughtered by their own brethren.

Besides tit-for-tat, the only other choice Israel seems to be talking about is another very costly, full-scale ground invasion.

But, there is another way.

Before I elaborate, let me ask a rhetorical question...

Is there anyone who's never been impressed by a flashy military parade? I mean, all those assorted macho warriors marching in precision in all their fancy uniforms, showing off their prowess and wares of one kind or another. And all that great, upbeat, martial music. Awesome.

And yet, after all these years, Israel's political and military leaders still don't seem to get it. Can't say I haven't tried.

I first attempted to persuade via my writings long ago, when it became apparent that the only real peace both the latter day alleged Arafatian "moderates" of Mahmoud Abbas and the simply more honest jihadis of Hamas had to offer Israel, in exchange for life-threatening concessions, was the peace of the grave...

http://www.israelnationalnews.......aspx/3379

Nothing's changed. I wish it were otherwise, for Arab and Jew alike.

So, that brings us back to an appreciation of parades.

It's obvious that Israel will always be in a no win situation regarding its fight to survive.

Regardless of how careful it tries to be, deliberately endangering its own children's lives by telegraphing its punches by making public announcements of its intentions, dropping leaflets, making phone calls, and the like; using infantry going door-to-door, when targets could easily be pulverized from afar; and so forth, Israel will always be condemned by most of the world anyway. And I'm not even referring to its Arab/Muslim critics.

Given this stark reality, and seeking another plan of action besides tit-for-tat or full-scale invasion, it's definitely time to take parades much more seriously.

Hamas and its ilk hold tough guy rallies, funeral processions for shahids ("martyr" disembowelers of Jews, etc.), and parades all of the time, with Itbach al-Yahud ("Slaughter the Jews") chants galore.

The masters of blown buses--who use their own women and children as human shields to hide behind and fire at civilian Jews from in schools, hospitals, homes, mosques, and such--love to show how nice they can prance around in their bandanas with weapons firing into the air and gleaming.

Now, with hundreds of such uncontested "militants"--whose expressed raison d'etre is the very destruction of Israel and Jews--exposed front and center this way, Israel truly needs to learn how to appreciate such a good parade, aka, one of the best targets one could ask for.

If the Israeli military and intelligence services can mastermind running off with huge quantities of the would-be Atomic Ayatollahs' top secret nuke information taken out of Iran itself, please don't tell me they can't find out in advance when and where the next big Hamas shindig will take place.

Why waste expensive bombs, endanger one's own personnel, and so forth to take out such targets one or two at a time when hundreds or more can be sent to Paradise all at once--with a guarantee that the vast majority of those dispatched will be Jew-killers or wannabes, and limiting non-combatant casualties at the same time? Perfecto mis amigos. And if they continue the terror, respond exponentially.

Will Israel be assailed by the International Association of Duplicitous Hypocrites and anti-Semites (aka, the UN) for doing this? Will the next pope be Catholic?

Think of it this way...If Israel opts, instead, for another full-scale invasion of tightly-packed Gaza, where using human shields is a common Arab tactic (and a major Geneva Conventions war crime), what kind of reaction do the Jews think they'll receive in the wake of that decision?

It's time for Israeli leaders and the military to finally learn the value of parades, rallies, and other such mass gatherings of Arab combatants.

Such gatherings must finally be attended by Israel in such a way that Hamas, Islamic Jihad--and the fake Fatah moderates of Abbas as well--will never forget and that will be worth the blanket condemnation which typically comes in the wake of all of Israel's attempts at self defense anyway.

America and its Allies previously firebombed Dresden, nuked Japan, and today have versions of their own Powell Doctrine on the use of overwhelming, massive force against existential enemies.

A nation requiring a magnifying glass to locate on a world globe also needs to be forceful in its response to those who wish it dead and who constantly act to accomplish that goal.

http://q4j-middle-east.com