A few weeks ago, Gaza’s Hamas has promised that a military conflict with Israel is approaching. In face of the deteriorating economic situation in Gaza, there are many analysts who believe that Hamas would do anything it can in order to save its skin and prevent the population from resisting the autocratic, ruthless rule of the Islamists in the poor strip. The scenario of deep humanitarian crisis in Gaza brings Hamas to lose sleep so the best solution in the Islamists’ eyes is to bombard the Israeli cities and towns with missiles and take the IDF into Gaza through bloody provocations. It is true that Israel cannot ignore the military aggression carried out by the local variant of Islamic fascism; however, it seems that Israel – that lacks any serious national strategy – is helpless when it comes to its Southern border.
The Gazans, who elected Hamas 12 years ago, are eager to get rid of the totalitarian regime which they themselves created through their ballots. They know that in order to resolve their humanitarian crisis, Hamas must be stepped down. However, they can’t topple the Islamic tyranny by themselves and should be aided. Israel, which wants to end more than a decade of organized terrorist activity in Gaza, must think of how to utilize the desire of the population to overthrow their rulers and at the same time stop the Hamas from continuing to make miserable the lives of so many Israelis. In fact, Israel has a good partner in the White House in case it wishes to put an end to the merciless Islamic dictatorship; it can press the Trump administration to support Israel in its quest to collapse the local fascists. In effect, the President’s desire to offer a good deal to the Israelis and the Palestinians is in line with the need to end too many years of bloody despotism in Gaza.
Israel cannot go on and ignore the threat posed by Hamas. The government’s policy, expressed in Mr. Netanyahu’s hesitant approach towards Gaza, constitutes a dead-end in political and military terms. It is not that Mr. Netanyahu is not responsible enough or fears the consequences of another war; the problem is that a mere hesitation without doing something serious is a road to nowhere. Israel must save its people, but also the Gazans themselves, from being condemned to more years of an ongoing threat. It has the moral responsibility to aid innocent people from being oppressed by Jihadist villains. In moral terms, Israel should stop Hamas from going on with torturing its own people. Of course, some defeatists would argue that Israel’s is endangering itself with an all-out war. However, these considerations, exhausted in sheer surrender to the terror, cannot guide Israel’s leaders. Hamas must cease from existing; the role of Mr. Netanyahu and his partners is clear. With no serious action against the Jihadists, Israel will face the same challenge posed to the U.S. in 9/11: either to destroy the terror or to be destroyed by it.