MOSHE PHILLIPS: ISRAEL AND HAMAS WILL GO TO WAR
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/phillips/110101
All one has to do is scan late December’s headlines to know that the battle lines have already been drawn for 2011. Hamas and Israel will either go to war (again) in the next twelve months or there will be a sharp escalation in Hamas attacks on Israel.
Whenever Israel goes to war it fights a two front war. In addition to armed combat, Israel fights on the battlefield of ideas. In this fight the petro-dollar funded Arab propaganda machine is often the weapon that Israel’s enemies find easier to wield. There can be no doubt that international pressure on Israel on several issues will be unrelenting. Israel will be faulted for any attempts to defend itself against Hamas. This will be even more intense than it was during “Operation Cast Lead” in December 2008 — January 2009. The question that remains is how severely the Obama Administration will criticize Israel and how hard it will attempt to prevent Israel from finally destroying Hamas.
At the same time one cannot help but be focused on the fact that as we enter 2011 we draw nearer to the tenth anniversary of the September 11th al-Qaeda terrorist attacks. There is no real difference between Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement) and al-Qaeda.
It is amazing to consider that in about nine short months ten years will have passed since the attacks on the World Trade Center, Flight 93 and the Pentagon. It must be noted that every year when the murderous assaults are recalled the attack on the Pentagon seems to get too little attention.
The Pentagon strike showed exactly what al-Qaeda had in mind. War. President George W. Bush understood Osama bin Laden’s intention.
Let’s recall what Bush said in the weeks after the 9/11 attacks:
- Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them.
- Our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.
- Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.
This was the core message of what historians and pundits labeled the “Bush Doctrine.”
When it comes to Hamas, what has happened to the “Bush Doctrine?”
Every effort to support Hamas, every attempt to illegally land cargo in Gaza, every campaign for Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions against Israel shows what side you are one. “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
There are too few decision makers in Europe and the U.S. that see Hamas as the illegal Islamic terrorist army that it is and understand that it needs to be totally annihilated. Those that oppose Israel’s blockade of Gaza and support Hamas’s fascist rule there grow stronger. So does Islamo-fascist terrorism internationally. So does al-Qaeda. Hamas is al-Qaeda’s partner in the war on Israel. Rohan Gunaratna documented this in his 2002 book “Inside Al Qaeda” writing that “Al Qaeda has forged ties with Hamas…”
Jim Zanotti’s “Hamas: Background and Issues for Congress” 67 page report issued by the Congressional Research Service on December 2, 2010 can be found be found on the U.S. State Department website. Much of the report portrayed Hamas as much less dangerous than it truly is. The report also stated “(t)he movement’s political leadership is currently headquartered in exile in Damascus, Syria.”
On December 29, just four weeks after the publication of the Congressional Research Service report President Obama appointed Robert Ford to be the first U.S. ambassador to Syria since February 2005. Just another proof that the Bush Doctrine is dead. Hamas celebrated in the hours after the 9/11 attacks and gave Gazan school children candy. Now that U.S. relations with Syria are normalized, one can assume that elements within the Obama Administration will next seek to legitimize Hamas in some official manner.
© Moshe Phillips
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