ISRAEL’S GAZA OFFENSIVE
http://online.wsj.com/articles/israels-gaza-offensive-1405640138
The country had little choice after Hamas rejected a ceasefire.
Israeli ground forces moved into the Gaza Strip Thursday, and it’s hard to see what other choices the country’s leadership had to defend its citizens from the terror group Hamas’s unrelenting missile attack.
Israel agreed Tuesday to a cease-fire proposal from Egypt and held its fire for six hours. Hamas kept firing throughout the day, while raising its demands. Among them: That Israel release Hamas prisoners and transfer funds to help Hamas pay its employees. “We will continue to bomb until our conditions are met,” said a Hamas spokesman, a statement intended to defy Jerusalem and Cairo.
Israel warned Palestinian civilians to move out of harm’s way, but there will inevitably be civilian casualties because that is part of Hamas’s political-military strategy. “For your safety you have to evacuate your house as soon as possible,” goes one telephoned Israeli warning. “Go to the center of the city before 8 o’clock in the morning on Wednesday.” But Hamas hides its immense arsenal of ever-longer range rockets in hospitals, mosques and, as we learned Thursday, even U.N. administered schools.
This will surely lead to condemnation of Israel in some international precincts, but this time Israel should stay the course until it achieves its strategic objective of neutralizing Hamas’s missile attacks. Two previous bouts of fighting in 2009 and 2012 failed to do this because Hamas was allowed to survive as the dominant power in Gaza. That needs to change this time.
This does not require a full occupation of Gaza. But it does mean seizing a zone to prevent the underground smuggling from Egypt of munitions and longer-range rockets into Gaza. It also means targeting Hamas’s military and political leadership through drone strikes and commando raids.
The claim will be made that Israel is merely making Hamas stronger and alienating moderate Palestinians. But Israel spent over a year trying to negotiate with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas under U.S. auspices, only to see Mr. Abbas abandon those talks in favor of a “unity pact” with Hamas. In any case Mr. Abbas has not exercised authority in Gaza since Hamas seized control in 2007.
Hamas won’t stop its rocket and other attacks until it concludes that the military and political price it is paying is too high. Until that happens a democracy like Israel is obliged to take the steps necessary to defend itself.
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