Former IDF Brig.-Gen. and Knesset Member Effie Eitam explained Wednesday to Arutz Sheva that a cease-fire with Hamas should not be an option saying that “we must understand that this war against the Hamas terrorist regime has ramifications well beyond the immediate outcome. The entire Arab and terrorist worlds, especially Iran and the like, are watching Israel to see how it deals, yet again, with terror threats and rockets fired into its territory." Eitam further warned against repeating the mistakes made in the battle against Hezbollah two and a half years ago stating that Israel's "failure last time in Lebanon is that which created the present situation… Everything taking place now in Gaza is a direct imitation of what happened in Lebanon: the way they prepared themselves on the ground, firing rockets at our cities, etc. In Lebanon, we had a few excuses, in that our army wasn’t perfectly ready, and Hizbullah had a home front behind them constantly re-supplying them and helping them – but here in Gaza this is not true: Our army is ready, there is no home front behind them, and we will have no excuse for not dealing them a total defeat. If we do not now effect the total defeat of a terrorist organization to the point where they get down on their knees and beg for mercy, we will face a deterrence-loss crisis much greater than that which occurred following the Second Lebanon War.”MK Eitam defined a “total defeat of Hamas” as dealing "a terrific blow to their military capabilities and to the desires of their decision-makers – if they are still around at the end; in my opinion they should not be - to resume firing rockets at us. Anything less will endanger us in the long run. Therefore, the test now is for the government leaders, not the army, which is ready and capable. If we fail, it will be a failure of the leadership. If they do half-a-job, it will have the gravest ramifications on our deterrence capability. Hamas can easily decide to stop firing rockets for a few day, if that is the condition for a ceasefire - and then where will we be? We will have had a small exchange of rockets between us, ending in a tie… We must not stop under any circumstances until we have achieved the objectives I stated above.”
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Military historian Victor Davis Hanson writes: "Hamas blankets Israel for days with rockets and the Europeans are silent until Israel responds with force-only to be blamed for inordinate aggression-the subtext being both that the militarily capable party is to be condemned for being,well, too militarily capable, and that those who can field and deploy terrorists, or aid those who will, against Western targets are deserving of some sort of exemption."
Walid Phares, author of "Future Jihad," writes that "BBC, CNN and France 24 are also tilting towards Hamas, which is creating a sort of a media consensus against Israel. It is a repeat of Lebanon 2006 on the media level so far."
Both Hanson and Phares are pointing out the bias from the international community and the media when it comes to Israel. The media will no doubt focus on innocent Palestinian casualties and attempt to create a consensus against Israel. However, let us remind ourselves of the support that Hamas has among the civilian Palestinians of Gaza. The people of Gaza voted for Hamas after Israel had withdrawn from every last inch of the Gaza territory. The Gaza territory has since been turned into a Hamas jihadist enclave. Just two weeks ago a Hamas rally was held in which tens of thousands showed up to support Hamas and the continued war to destroy the Jewish State. Thousands celebrated the rocket attacks on innocent Israeli civilians and the illegal kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit from undisputed Israeli territory. The Left will cry rivers over a Guantanomo detainee, but somehow not shed a single tear for Gilad Schalit who has not surprisingly even been afforded one visit by the International Red Cross while in Hamas captivity. All these thousands of Gazans showing up to the rally are certainly not members of Hamas's armed wing. But they are in no way innocent. It is this rally from just two weeks ago that provides a necessary context that will not be heard in the media coverage of the Israeli strikes on Gaza.
The following link shows an Israeli Air Force video of a Hamas rocket launch followed by Israel destorying others: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230733115606&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Here is another Israeli Air Force video showing a precision strike on December 31 against a Gaza mosque that was being used to stock rockets. Secondary explosions are caused by the ignition of the Palestinian weapons cache. Hamas has no problem using a place of worship as a military site and base for terrorist activity.
Further, historian Michael Oren notes that "the current round of fighting provides Israel with an opportunity to end its painful chronicle of indecision on Gaza and to embark on a lucid and realizable policy. Can Israel co-exist with a Hamas-dominated Gaza? What are the alternatives (the reintroduction of Egyptian forces, for example) to a renewed Israeli occupation of the area? To what degree will the international community accept a zero-tolerance approach to rocket attacks against Israel, and, more crucially, will the incoming Obama administration publicly endorse that stance? These and other questions might be answered in the coming days if Israel, withstanding the media backlash, dares to ask them."
Finally, the following photo was taken at a pro-Palesti
nian demonstration in Manhattan. This terrorist sympathizer wants all Juice dead and supports the killing of innocent Juice by Islamoterrorists. I believe that Tropicana has a right to defend itself against madmen such as these who want all Juice dead. On the one hand, the functional illiteracy of this anti-Semite is laughable. On the other hand, the fact that a sign bearing such a message appears as part of a demonstration in New York City is no laughing matter.
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