Victory Dancing
There was no victory to be had in Gaza; all the possibilities were bad.
Israel's Operation Cast Lead intended to damage the Hamas leadership and infrastructure in hopes of stopping the rocket fire that has terrorized more than three quarters of a million Israelis in the south. Because Hamas not only fired at civilians, but fired from among civilians, it was always clear that the job of "dismantling the terrorist infrastructure" would be ugly and that Palestinian civilians would pay a price for the lousy Hamas leadership for which they voted.
This is why the Israelis waited so long; returning fire only after 8,000 Hamas rockets of increasing range and precision hit Israel since the disengagement in 2005, including 3,700 rockets in 2008.
Which is why, since December 27, Israel has transferred more than 450,000 gallons of fuel and 37,000 tons of humanitarian supplies to Gaza in 1,500 trucks. And which is why the Magen David Adom (Israel's Red Cross) set up a medical clinic on the Israeli side of the Erez check point to serve the Palestinian population. Paramedics are working with volunteer doctors, specializing in family medicine, pediatrics, gynecology, trauma, orthopedics and surgery. The clinic is equipped with laboratories, X-ray machines and a pharmacy. After diagnosis, patients may be transferred to Israeli hospitals so MDA ambulances have been sent to the clinic.
Only in the warped minds of people who poison their own children and hide behind their own mothers could the devastation of Gaza be portrayed as a victory. But Hamas and its Iranian backers are performing a sort of loopy victory dance.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said the Palestinians had achieved an historic and strategic victory over Israel. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad agreed, congratulating Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas leader living in Syria, on a "great victory." He called it "only the beginning."
Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy chairman of the Hamas "political bureau," pointed to what he called, "the failure of the Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip and its failure to impose its conditions on the resistance and our people....We also emphasize our demand that the Zionist enemy withdraw from the Gaza Strip within a week and that the border crossings be reopened." He's making demands?
Note: Abu Mazen's term as elected president of the Palestinian Authority quietly expired last week. Israel, the United States and the European Union have continued to speak to him, and of him, as if he has some legal place in Palestinian affairs. Hamas disagrees.
Faraj al-Ghul, Hamas minister of justice (oxymoron alert), said Abbas is the former president and according to the Palestinian Authority Basic Law, the Hamas government of Ismail Haniyeh is the only legitimate representative. No Palestinian government would honor an agreement signed by Abbas.
The Jerusalem Post reported that al-Ghul called, "for the arrest of Abbas so that he could be interrogated and tried for committing hundreds of atrocities and for coordinating with [U.S. security coordinator Lt. Gen. Keith] Dayton and the Israeli occupation against the resistance. Abbas is also accused of giving a green light to the Zionist occupation to perpetrate the biggest holocaust in history against the Palestinians."
On the other hand, The Jerusalem Post also reported that Fatah's armed wing, the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, bragged that its operatives in Gaza fired 102 rockets and 35 mortars at Israel and that one of its top commanders, Ali Hijazi, had been killed. Fatah, remember, is Israel's "partner."
In all of this, not one Palestinian leader suggested that the Hamas war against Israel was a tragedy for the Palestinian people and that for their sake it should end.
They are dancing on the wreckage of their own people, something Israel could not and would not in a million years have done. Which, we suppose, is the difference.
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