Gaza Rocket Sets Off Daylong Battle Between Hamas and Israel

As this is election time, there has been criticism for Mr. Netanyahu's handling of this. Most of his political opponents, including those popular in this newspaper have called for more strident responses including taking out the Hamas leadership. When you have a party composed of generals, their knee jerk reaction is such. Even the left cannot fault the fact that Mr. Netanyahu reacted and Israel retaliated. So they fault Mr. Netanyahu for not strengthening the Palestinian Authority and Hamas in their "reconciliation" efforts. As if they believe that. They have to say something. Hamas has the avowed, open and clear goal of destroying Israel, i.e. 1948 Israel. There is no pretense of 1967. So what 2 state deal are we talking about? Who controls Hamas if such a deal should be made with the impotent PA? Why will Hamas agree to anything? Their policy is theologically and religiously dictated: Palestine is Muslim. End of their discussion.

Israel can do nothing right and Hamas nothing wrong. That view from world governments is what has destroyed the two-state solution and preventing any kind of peace from being attainable. Let's face facts. Hamas has a goal to wipe Israel from the face of the Earth. Islamic Jihad actually has a goal of wiping Israel from the face of the Earth and then ensuring all Jews are dead so that they can never rebuild an Israeli state again. Iran and Syria would like nothing more than that. Jordan and Egypt barely accept Israel as a concept and secretly would celebrate the death and destruction of all Jews. Meanwhile, Israel just wants to exist and it wants to be a Jewish state. Given the shear numbers of Muslim states in the world compared to the one Jewish state, I find it hard to believe that the best solution is to get rid of the Jewish state. The Palestinians are really just Jordanians, Syrians, and Egyptians. They can be repatriated to Jordan, Syria, and Egypt without them being killed or destroying their already horrible lives. In fact, their lives would probably be much better if they were moved. Meanwhile, Jews are Jewish. They have thousands of years of history in Israel before Islam was even invented. If Israel goes away they have nowhere to go. In my opinion Israel should bite the bullet and annex Gaza and the West Bank. Annex it and move all the "Palestinians" to one of the many Mulsim states surrounding Israel. It will be hard, but it's the only way in my opinion.

By now we should know that whenever Hamas agrees to a truce or cease-fire, they just use it as an opportunity to reload rather than to talk peace. Also, they only agree to such when they know that they are out of ammo to fire at Israeli civilians. If they were really into talking peace, they would have done so a long time ago. As long as they continue to call for the death of all Jews, a cease-fire will just be seen as nothing more than reset button for them in preparing for another attack in the near future. Until they start renouncing terrorism and are willing to accept Israel as a Jewish state, nothing will ever change let alone end this long conflict that they continue to live with and never let go.

Apparently it's time to cut the grass again.

I wish the Israel army all the best.

I would like to see a map showing how far this rocket went.

Hamas wants a war, and not just to divert internal attention from the misery. It hopes to become the centerfold of western gawking, with condemnation of anything Israel does, and promises of foreign aid (without strings attached) to "rebuild" after a war is over. It's also possible that Hamas is coordinating this with Iranian/Hezbollah leaders. So if Israel is rushing troops to the south, Hezbollah or Syrian forces will attack from the north/northeast. Few people want to understand that Israel lives under severe threats, while it tries to maintain the status quo with the Palestinians, while the Palestinian "leaders" cherish every moment that Israel is criticized for not being sensitive enough/giving enough to the Palestinians, and Abbas is still praised as Israel's "best bet" for peace. Really? Read what he says about "peace" with Israel. There is no current solution to this dilemma, and unlikely that a younger Palestinian leader will emerge who really wants two separate, but cooperating, states to exist, without a culture of genocidal anti-Semitism. In the meantime, the liberal press excoriates ONLY Israel for allowing more "settlers" to be born, grow up, marry and remain in the West bank, while eternally expecting Israel will eventually move out a million+ Jews from that land, in 50 years from now? If it wasn't so utterly stupid, it is laughable. Expect that the North Korean impasse will last that long, too.

Does Hamas have any control over its territory? How many people can have rockets that travel 60 miles in that small land area? Hamas, if they did not launch the rocket, knows who did launch it.

For those who dismiss the Hamas rockets as "bottle rockets" or "firecrackers", please take a look at the pictures and imagine it was your family asleep in that house when the rocket hit. The only reason these aren't raining down on Israeli civilians on a daily basis is Israel's constant efforts in Gaza and in developing the incredibly advanced Iron Dome system. Contrast this to Hamas putting their civilians front and center, and hiding amongst them in order to drum up sympathy in the world media. Note which side is deliberately targeting civilians, and which side takes extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties.

For this news I spare criticizing Israel. Hamas actions vicious and seriously taking advantage of the situation ( election). How come this is helping Gazans. Now they are going to pay this with their lives. This middle eastern nihilistic politics is more absurd than any monthy phyton series.

Hamas is claiming that today's launch of a rocket from Gaza that injured civilians in Central Israel was, like the rocket launched from Gaza a couple of weeks ago and landed near Tel Aviv, an "accident." Assuming for the sake of argument that Hamas' hard to believe explanation is true, how many times should children be permitted to play with matches and accidentally start fires before the matches are taken away from them? Hamas, like Donald Trump, has repeatedly demonstrated that it is unfit to govern.

A single rocket? This is suspicious. I would not put it past Netanyahu to arrange for the rocket to be fired at this convenient moment for him.

I just want everyone to remember, despite their political opinions, how traumatic it can be to live in Israel. The traumas of the past are interwoven with terrorist bombings, rocket attacks, and the never ending threat of war. This doesn't excuse bad policy in the territories, but it does help explain the focus on security. Americans have no idea what it's like to live under this kind fo threat.