What are we fighting for?

Death, destruction and suffering makes pacifists of us all.  We hate the need for war, but if we have to defend ourselves, then at least we must win, and the only way to win is to cause greater casualties, much greater casualties, to our enemy, Hamas.  Let the death and destruction be disproportionate, so that eventually they may get the message and leave us alone!  We only want to live in peace, but if in order to do that we must strike back at them, and although slow to anger, we will be great in our rage.

What are we fighting for?  Foremost is for our survival, against an implacable and ruthless enemy, which does not hesitate to directly attack innocent civilians, in fact as far as they are concerned there are none, all Israelis are fair game.  That is why they are celebrating the fact that they managed to kill a 4 year old boy, Daniel Tragerman, in one of their latest mortar barrages against southern Israel.  But see the difference, we don't show his bloodied body being carried into the emergency room of the hospital, nor allow the cameras to dwell on his injuries.  We don't allow cameras into the emergency room at all out of respect for the dignity of the dead.  But, the supposedly sensitive inhabitants of the western countries are such easy game for the sensationalist tricks of the Hamas PR people, who not only allow this, but undoubtedly stage many incidents to show the killing of children and their injuries, maybe many of them are doused in ketchup.  Be at least a little skeptical.

Another thing we are fighting against is the kind of regime, namely Hamas, that takes men out into the street without trial, accuses them of aiding the enemy, Israel, and then shoots them in the head in front of a large crowd. Whatever happened to due process.  Note that IS do this too, shooting people in the back of the head as well as decapitating them, both are primitive brutal terrorist organizations.  According to reports, 18 men and women were likewise executed by Hamas yesterday, apparently in retaliation for Israel's assassinations of three (or possibly 4) leaders of the Hamas military wing, Izzadin al Kassem.  We hope the fourth one, Mohammed Deif, the Head of the military wing of Hamas, who was probably injured, is also dead.  Since we haven't seen him before the cameras it is a good bet that he too was killed, which would be a huge loss for Hamas.

There are several kinds of peace, the most obvious one is the absence of violence.  But, this is not enough, to have genuine peace there must be interaction between the sides, genuine compromise. Unfortunately the Muslim side does not know or understand the meaning of compromise.  You will often hear Palestinian spokesmen say "it is our right, etc..." as if that makes it automatically acceptable, for example, the so-called "right of return" that is a pure invention of Palestinian propaganda, or "the occupation" which is a code word for Israel.  In fact they can only get what we agree to and that will not be much.  Israel certainly will not lift the blockade, so that they can import missiles, nor give them a port, so that they can import building materials to build tunnels, and certainly not an airport, so that they can bring in foreign terrorist fighters.  By the way, Egypt also refuses to lift its blockade on Gaza, for fear of Hamas terrorism entering Sinai.  So we must continue fighting until Hamas accept our conditions.