Israel should follow this advise from a great President
Posted on 07/11/2014 2:23:58 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Israeli army on Wednesday intensified its offensive on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, striking Hamas sites and killing at least 14 people on the second day of a military operation it says is aimed at quelling rocket fire against Israel.
Hamas is broke. It's lost some of its biggest supporters. Its supply lines from Egypt are cut off. The Islamist militant group is at one of its weakest points since it was founded in 1987. Yet, its operatives are busy firing rockets at Israel, as hostilities between the two arch-enemies continues to escalate.
Why? Hamas has little other choice but to fight, say observers here.
"Look, Hamas [is] in trouble, but there is no way it's going to stop the military campaign against Israel, because the organization doesn't see a good way to get out of it," said Shaul Mishal, one of Israel's foremost experts on Hamas.
Just yesterday, Hamas vowed that all Israelis are targets, following an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza of one of the leaders of its militant wing.
Israel says it has killed other Hamas members because they were involved in firing rockets at its territory.
"The occupation started this aggression, and it must pay the price," Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said on Facebook. "We will be the ones to define the cost of the bill."
Hamas has claimed responsibility for rockets fired on Jerusalem and the northern Israeli city of Haifa. Almost all of the rockets fired by Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza have either been destroyed by Israel's Iron Dome defence shield, or fallen in open areas. There have been few reports of damage and casualties on the Israeli side.
Yet the screeching air raid sirens that have caused fear and panic in southern Israel for years now are creeping north. Residents of Tel Aviv once thought themselves immune to attacks from Gaza.
Now, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, among others, are capable of launching rockets that experts say can travel up to 120 kilometres, much farther north of Tel Aviv.
Israeli leaders continue to warn Hamas it faces a further escalation in Gaza, if the rocket fire doesn't stop. Israel's defence ministry has authorized the call-up of 40,000 reserve troops for a potential ground invasion of Gaza.
After two days of punishing airstrikes by Israel's air force, however, is Hamas preparing to back down?
The militant group still controls Gaza, but it no longer governs the coastal enclave. It joined a unity government with its West Bank rival Fatah last month. It's thought the Hamas leadership was actively working to improve its relationship with Fatah, but that fell apart when three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped in the West Bank last month. Their bodies were discovered last week.
While Hamas denied involvement in the abductions — even though Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu placed the blame squarely on Hamas — Khaled Meshal, Hamas's political chief, praised "the hands that carried out the kidnapping of the settlers."
The ouster of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president a year ago has had a dramatic effect on Hamas. The army-controlled government in Cairo sees Hamas as an enemy, and has cut off smuggling tunnels that were vital for the militant group to move supplies and weapons into Gaza.
The economy in the coastal enclave is in crisis. With financial support from Qatar drying up, Hamas is broke. It's been unable to pay thousands of civil servants.
So how long can it keep this rocket campaign against Israel?
Mishal, a professor with one of Israel's foremost academic institutions, IDC Herzliya, has a prediction:
"I think it will take another few days, maybe even more, until both sides will reach the point of mutual dissatisfaction, which means they will realize there is no way to continue, because both of them are going to lose rather than to win."
Why do Muslim governments fund Hamas? To make trouble for Israel, and get the Arab street’s attention off how poor they are at home.
It shoots uselessly at Israel as a fundraising mechanism, they know foreign aid will roll in.
The same reason why the GOPE shoots uselessly at Obama before an election, to fundraise.
Is hamas and isis at ware with each other? If not, hamas is NOT out of money since isis conducted their Iraq central bank raids a couple months back.
s/ware/war
Alan Lysis? Who’s he?..............
You didn’t read the article. Islamic governments have cut off Hamas’s funding, so Hamas is running out of missiles and can’t pay its government civil servants.
That's their raison d'être - they exist for that. Eating, drinking, money, family is only a means to one end: kill the Jews.
How long can Hamas keep up the rocket attacks? .... until they run out of rockets. I think that’s what Israel is doing ... causing Hamas to totally deplete their rocket supplies.
And now ISIS has a new destabilized area, and with a corridor to the Med. Heaven help us all.
Um, I’ll take - they’re stupid for one thousand, Alex.
One has to wonder when Pope Francis invited President Peres and President Abbass to the Vatican to pray would this be God’s answer?
Hamas out of money, big supporters, supplies, so why is it shooting at Israel?
Because that’s the only thing they know how to do.
Mishal, a professor with one of Israel’s foremost academic institutions, IDC Herzliya, has a prediction:
“I think it will take another few days, maybe even more, until both sides will reach the point of mutual dissatisfaction, which means they will realize there is no way to continue, because both of them are going to lose rather than to win.”
What a stupid prediction. Of course it came from a professor.
Both will lose rather than win?
Some expert.
He thinks 100s of missiles raining down on Israel is less of a loss than attacking those who are firing them off? Really?
I hate statements like this from blithering idiots.
It seems there’s always some “Expert” around to muddy the waters.
So Obama will send them more “humanitarian relief” after Israel is provoked into leveling them again. Is this a trick question?
Exactly!
It will go on until Hamas runs out of rockets. Now that the money and tunnels are cut off, that may be sooner rather than later.
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