Not a single cause of the recent war between Hamas and Israel has been removed, or is even planned to be removed. Without radical change in Gaza, another Hamas-Israel war is inevitable.
Illusion rules the day. If only Gazans had more food and electricity, more jobs and stability, Hamas would not start another war. If only financial aid to Gaza is increased and careful measures put in place to keep aid out of Hamas’ hands, Gaza will change. This is the illusion.
How so?
The cause of the war is Hamas’ hatred of the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. If that doesn’t change, all the material improvements in the world will not alter the driving dynamic of Gaza.
Hate is not just an idea. It is a strategy. It is Hamas’ commitment to focusing on what it has always focused on: building weapons to damage and, in its mind, ultimately to destroy Israel.
Very simply put: If those countries who profess themselves to be horrified over the last Hamas-Israel war do not have a concrete, realistic, on-the-ground plan for demilitarizing Gaza —for preventing Hamas from building more arms — another war is inevitable.
If a major UN occupying force or some other force does not move into Gaza with the express charge of shutting down Hamas’ weapons building program, another war is inevitable. If Hamas continues to build rockets, they will be fired into Israel. The question is when, not if.
Financial aid may improve Gazans’ lives, and that is important intrinsically, but not instrumentally. It will not change Hamas’ ideology or methodology. With or without Western aid, Hamas secures the means to build its weaponry, often out of the simplest materials.
There are other illusions.
First, that Israeli action in Jerusalem was the reason Hamas began to fire rockets on Israeli civilians on May 10. Israeli actions provided an excellent cover — excellent, because it obviously worked. Hamas went to war because it was denied control over the West Bank, which it would have secured if the Palestinian Authority there had not canceled elections at the last minute. Here was a perfect convergence for Hamas: hatred of Israel and hatred of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas’ attack on Israel intensified its support on the West Bank. The missiles were fired against Israel — a blessing, from Hamas’ point of view — but also fired up anger at Abbas and support for Hamas. The world didn’t notice. Israel received the blame, not Hamas and not the Palestinian Authority.
The second illusion: that Netanyahu was trigger happy. Just the opposite. Since the previous Hamas-Israel war in 2014, Hamas gave Netanyahu multiple occasions to justify a major Israeli counterattack. Hamas fired on Sderot. Hamas burned down Israeli fields. Netan- yahu was under pressure many times to answer militarily in the broad fashion he did this time. He resisted. He was widely criticized for not doing enough to protect southern Israel.
Evidence, you ask for? Check out Lebanon. The military build-up there against Israel is far more extensive than in Gaza. Yet, Israel has held its fire in Lebanon. Israel doesn’t want war, despite the increasing dangers it faces. It goes to war when it must.
Hamas will make sure it must if the US, the UN and other major powers don’t wake up and defang Hamas.
I am frightened when I watch the post-war response of the Biden administration and others. They do not face the ugly truth. It is neither material deprivation nor Israeli action that brought the last war, nor will material improvements in Gaza or Israeli pullback in Jerusalem prevent another war.
Why England Slept was the title of John F. Kennedy’s book on the failure of Western democracies to recognize the nature and scope of the German threat in the 1930s. With respect to the nature and scope of the Hamas threat in the 2020s, the Biden administration is asleep.
Copyright © 2021 by the Intermountain Jewish News
