Dan

Calabrese

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December 30, 2008

Destroy Hamas, and Kill Palestinian Civilians If Necessary

Perhaps the Bush Administration goes through the motions of urging “restraint” and the like – not really meaning it and understanding that Israel knows this – because it needs to do so for global political cover.

But aren’t we past the point when the need to “avoid civilian casualties” – as tragic as such casualties are – can really be our biggest concern here? Such diplomatic blather, now emerging from the White House in the aftermath of the Hamas’s rocket attacks on Israel, and of Israel’s forceful response, merely avoids the real issue.

The only strategic priority that can seriously matter at this point is for Israel to completely destroy Hamas, or at least to destroy its leadership, physical infrastructure and all material that makes it possible for the unabashed terrorist group to further attack our ally. Political and military leaders – kill them all. Buildings – blow them up. Rockets, other weapons systems and the means for delivering same – destroy them.

Hamas has no legitimate reason for existing. Israel knows this and would probably be much more aggressive in obliterating it if not for the constant urging of the United States to act with restraint.

Hamas may have won a measure of “legitimacy” by winning the Palestinian Authority elections in 2006, but it is hard to take such a measure seriously. The Palestinian Authority is neither a nation nor a viable state of any kind. It is the organizing movement of an ethnic group within a state to which it is largely alien – and hostile.

No one pretends to believe that Hamas exists for the purpose of governing peacefully so as to improve the lot in life of the Palestinian people. Hamas exists not only for the long-term goal of destroying Israel, but also to obstruct the short-term political movement toward a two-state solution in which truly autonomous Palestinians live peacefully alongside a secure Israel. Hamas would never have run in the PA elections in the first place if its success therein did not position it to help achieve this goal.

And effective governing of the Palestinian people via the PA does not achieve this goal. Rocket attacks do. They cannot destroy Israel alone, of course, but they can cause extensive casualties while drawing Israel into a firefight it can never quite win as long as its own friends are more concerned about collateral damage than victory.

Why should Israel be concerned about Palestinian civilians when Hamas is not only unconcerned, but quite eager to use these same civilians as human shields – forcing Israel into a choice between failing to respond and slaughtering the very people Hamas intentionally placed in harm’s way?

President Bush has long advocated for the spread of democracy as a way of countering political oppression and the terrorism that stems from it. When Palestinians were given a chance to elect their own “government,” and they chose Hamas, many Bush critics gleefully snickered that this is what you get when you invite democracy among people who are probably better off being ruled by an iron fist.

But the real lesson is that people should think about how they vote, and should not be expected be spared the consequences of a bad choice. Did the Palestinian people not know the nature of Hamas when they voted? Does it come as a shock to them that Hamas doesn’t care a whit about them, but only cares about provoking and inflicting damage on the Israelis? Did they never conceive of the possibility that Hamas might use them as human shields if it was strategically advantageous to do so?

No one wants civilians killed, but you can’t fight with one hand tied behind your back. Hamas is perfectly happy to slaughter as many Israeli civilians as it can. It intentionally seeks to do so, and has no compunction about putting its own civilian subjects at risk to help the cause.

Israel is supposed to combat this without putting Palestinian civilians at any risk whatsoever?

Here’s a better idea: Completely destroy Hamas without any regard for who gets killed in the process. That might teach any Palestinians who survive the onslaught to think more carefully about who they elect in the future. Or it might not, in which case the rest of them can line up to get killed as well.

It’s better than asking Israel, a democratic ally of the United States that only wants to live in peace, to put up with unprovoked attacks. The Palestinian people have to start taking responsibility for their decisions and for the future. If they continue to embrace the anti-Semitic propaganda that has informed their decisions to date, it will be no one’s fault but their own if that freely chosen ignorance gets them killed.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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