Contributors

Friday, November 23, 2012

Rewarding Bad Behavior

Israel and Hamas have agreed to yet another truce after the Hamas terrorists who run Gaza unleashed a barrage of missiles on Israel and Israel retaliated with targeted assassinations of Hamas leaders and bombings of terrorists who hide their missile launchers among Palestinian civilians. The toll after this latest skirmish was 161 Palestinians and five Israelis.

The ostensible reason Hamas started this conflict, which would be Rocky XLII if we numbered them like movie sequels, is the five-year blockade of Gaza. The blockade has left residents of the tiny strip of land starving and without any means to generate income. Israel imposed the blockade to prevent terrorists bringing missiles into Gaza. But as the daily rain of missiles upon Tel Aviv proved, the blockade is an abject failure.

Ironically, this outburst of terrorism has empowered Hamas, raising their status among Palestinians, and has opened the door to ending the blockade.

Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian National Authority, which controls the West Bank, has been trying peaceful means to move Israel towards a two-state solution. Hamas and the PA have been competing for the devotion of the Palestinian people for years now. Europe and Abbas have been using diplomatic means, trying to get the UN to recognize Palestinian statehood, but American UN Ambassador Susan Rice has vigorously blocked it as the Israelis demanded. Despite Republican assertions that the Obama administration is Israel's worst enemy.

Again and again, Israel has stymied all peaceful Palestinian attempts at resolving the issue, but has caved to terrorist demands. Every time Palestinians kidnap an Israeli soldier the Israelis ultimately cave in and release hundreds of Palestinians from prison to get one guy back. They'll even do it for a corpse. Admittedly, most of the Palestinians the Israelis release are innocent schmucks "arrested" for just this purpose. But, still...

For years now Israel has stiffed the peaceful Abbas, but now it looks like Israel will again reward terrorist Hamas by cutting a deal on the blockade. What message does this send to the Palestinians? Violence works. Terrorism works. Kidnapping works. Negotation and diplomacy? Not so much.

You have to wonder why Israel chooses to proceed this way. Are they just that stupid, or is there a more cynical reason? Do Bibi Netanyahu and the conservative Likud Party have a symbiotic relationship with Hamas? Do Likud and Hamas constantly rekindle these deadly conflicts solely to prop up their own popularity?

If so, Hamas and Likud are trading human lives for political power. To be sure, Hamas is far more disgusting in the treatment of its own people as human shields. But Israel does the same thing by having its citizens to build illegal settlements on Palestinian territory, intentionally placing themselves in grave bodily danger, which then requires the Israeli military to protect settlers on that stolen land, requiring further assimilation of Palestinian land as "buffer zones."

While Hamas is using human shields to launch attacks on Israel, Israel is using human swords to carve up Palestinian lands.

In the end, there appears to be no incentive for Likud to agree to peace. As long as Israel can portray Palestinians as dangerous terrorists like Hamas, they can avoid a diplomatic solution that would require them to give up land. It'll only cost a few Israeli lives each year to keep the conflict going, maybe even fewer if they can get all the bugs out of Iron Dome. And a random bus bombing every few months will remind Israelis how much they really need Likud in power to protect them from random bus bombings.

The status quo allows Israel to continue to slowly expand its borders every year, and allows Hamas to gain popularity among Palestinians. It's win-win for everyone. Except the millions of Palestinians who live in abject poverty, the hundreds of Palestinian children who die from malnutrition and the dozens of Israelis killed by terrorists each year.

1 comment:

Juris Imprudent said...

Hamas and Likud are trading human lives for political power.

But weren't they both democratically elected?