Israel wants to go after Hamas, but doesn’t want all-out war with Gaza

The Times of Israel ^ | Tuesday, July 1, 2014 | Avi Issacharoff

[Star Traveler]

The key Hamas leadership is in the Strip but an escalation there, in response to the killing of the three teens, would bring dozens of missiles down on Tel Aviv

The options facing Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas on the day after the discovery of the bodies of the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers range from bad to worse.

In the course of the late night cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Monday, all kinds of ideas for the appropriate Israeli response were aired. The demolition of houses, the deportation of prisoners, an assault on Gaza, and more besides. But the security establishment knows demolishing homes or exiling prisoners will not reduce the motivation of the terrorists, certainly not those from Islamist organizations.

Hamas has learned how to compensate the families of terrorists whose homes are demolished; they’ve been given more than enough money to rebuild those homes. As for the deportation of prisoners, that has become a double-edged sword: Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails and exiled have, from their new homes and offices in Gaza, Arab states and Turkey, overseen intensive efforts to establish terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank.

However, despite the pressure of public opinion in Israel for a response to the killings, Jerusalem is concerned about targeting the Hamas leadership in Gaza because of the fear of escalation. The price of a dramatic upsurge in action against Hamas, or of efforts to bring down the Hamas leadership, will be dozens of missiles on Israel’s central Dan region and even further north. At this stage, it does not look as though Israel is interested in waging all-out war with Gaza.

[Biggirl]

Sadly, the world as you said is ASLEEP again in regards to ISIS and other the other alphabet soup terrorist organizations as well, just like the late 30’s.

[Netz]

Israel must be strong (not as a bully but as the ONLY bastion of freedom & Democracy in that region).
For all it’s sins, Israel is a decent and pluralistic society while ALL of her neighbors are cannibal-Barbarians.

[Netz]

PA/Hamas is butchering Israel’s citizens in the streets and some don’t want to retaliate because it may make them mad?

...no, it might hurt their poor little diddum’s feelings, after all, it is RAMADAN, a time for festivities, a time for fasting, a time for blowing the crap out of each and every Muslim by other Muslims because, what we need is brotherly love, right ;)