Crises bring the opportunists out of the woodwork to plead for your money to “help the victims,” but you may be the victim and they’re the ones being helped.
By DOUGLAS BLOOMFIELDIron Dome battery in Israel.(photo credit: REUTERS)
As the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas teeters between another cease-fire and another invasion, the America Jewish community has largely been a bystander. It has played cheerleader for the Netanyahu government (not necessarily synonymous with Israel) while also serving its own financial interests.On the Left are the blame-Israel critics who fret over the plight of the Gazans who are killed or wounded (while their leaders hide safely in fortified underground bunkers), oblivious to Hamas’ intentions. This war could have been avoided had Israel truly agreed to a two-state solution, declared one pundit.Over to the Right are the hawks, who would like to see more bombing followed by invasion and reoccupation of Gaza, and are blaming President Barack Obama for the whole mess.On Capitol Hill is the pro-Israel cheering section, looking to ensure the flow of Jewish campaign dollars for the next election and – in the case of many Republicans – seeking creative ways to use the crisis as another partisan wedge.Israel didn’t start this round of fighting, but political factors in the Jewish state contributed mightily to its rapid escalation. Terror groups in Gaza had been firing rockets into Israel and Hamas, in violation of the previous ceasefire, was doing little or nothing to stop them. Then came the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens near Hebron.Media reports suggest Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu knew Hamas was not responsible almost from the outset; he promised to produce the proof but he never did – because he had none. He ordered a roundup of Hamas activists in the West Bank that – predictably – produced a violent reaction from Hamas, which quickly played right into his hands by firing three rockets into southern Israel the day after the kidnapping.Now he had something he long wanted: A chance to crack down on Hamas and break its reconciliation agreement with Fatah.He also had an even larger goal, which he revealed in a press conference last week – prevention of a fully sovereign Palestinian state. Speaking to journalists in Hebrew, he said the latest round of violence has convinced him “There cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan.”He went on to dismiss Secretary of State John Kerry and, by extension, other world leaders who support the twostate approach, as “naïve outsiders.”Netanyahu knew he could count on American support in this war. No one is going to have any sympathy for a terror group that trumpets its desire to destroy the Jewish state. And now Hamas had a unity pact with the Palestinian Authority.
