Posted by
arandomguy on Sunday, November 19, 2006 12:16:37 AM
After an increase in rocket attacks over the last several days, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced today that he is ordering his generals to go after Hamas leadership. This is a sharp change from their previous policy, which only focused on targeting those directly involved with the military wing of the organization.
Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Hamas leaders "have to disappear, go to paradise, all of them." He concurs with the decision by Olmert to go after the political wing of Hamas. The Israeli high-command announced in newspapers today that they would no longer allow the political wing of Hamas to "escape responsibility" for the attacks on Israel.
It is good to see that Israel finally woke up and realized they are fighting a total war. They should have gone after the politicians first. The military leaders cause a lot of problems, but the political wing is the greater long term threat. If Israel had been thinking properly when this war began, though would have targeted the politicians first. I know it's not the politically correct thing to do, but war is Hel1, and there's not a lot anybody can do about it.
Either way, it is good that Israel has finally caught on. The political members of Hamas are just as bad, if not worse then the military wing, because they have something the military wing does not - an audience. The military wing of Hamas spends all their time declaring Jihad on Israel, and trying to destroy all the elements of freedom in the mideast. They don't have time for PR.
The political wing has a lot of time to agitate the masses - indeed, that is their primary purpose, since running the Palestinian government has proved to be beyond their capacity to handle. And this agitation of the masses is a problem, because they will become the next wave of suicide bombers to hit Israel. They will become the next generation of kidnappers, who attack and hold hostage two foreign journalists for days.
The military arm of Hamas is weak. If Israel fought a total war, it would be defeated quickly, since the numbers are small, and the weapons relatively unsophisticated. However, Israel is unwilling to fight a total war, and so long as the political wing remains, there will continue to be new recruits for Hamas, ready to sacrifice their lives to kill a few nasty Jews.
Regardless, it is good that Israel is starting to catch on. There is a time when Israel would have just assassinated these political agitators. Look at what they did after the Munich Olympics. The Olmert government has weakened itself, and it is afraid of what the "international community" will think if it goes for total war against the jihadists. Perhaps they have finally learned that the brunt of the "international community" will always hate them, and that they should just make the best of it, and get rid of the jihadists aiming for their destruction.
That will be a step towards peace in the middle east.