Hamas under pres
Snaphanen har fundet en fremragende artikel på Wall Street Journal, der imødegår de forfejlede standardræsonnementer man hører i tide og utide også herhjemme om krigen i Gaza.
It seems that most of the West’s news reporters and pundits agree with Islamists everywhere that an Israeli victory in Gaza is impossible. They decry Israel’s defensive attack on Hamas, prophesying an inevitable strengthening of Islamism among Palestinians and a dark future for the Jewish state.How do our commentators come to this conclusion? They point, most frequently, to Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, and echo Hezbollah’s claim that it won a great victory. Indeed, this narrative goes, in launching their rockets at Israel, Hamas leaders were imitating Hezbollah’s winning strategy.
In fact, Hezbollah was thoroughly shocked by the Israeli bombing campaign, and its supporters, who mostly live in southern Lebanon, are not likely to tolerate another wave of destruction caused by another Hezbollah attack. Even the inconclusive Israeli ground actions in Lebanon, which never involved more than six companies (roughly 600 men), resulted in the loss of some 400 Hezbollah fighters in direct face-to-face combat while Israel suffered only 30 casualties.(…)
Consider: According to Gaza sources, until the ground fighting started some 25% of the 500 dead were innocent civilians. The Israelis claimed that 20% of the casualties from the aerial attack were civilians. Either way, this was an extremely accurate bombing campaign. (Even in the 1991 and 2003 U.S. air campaigns against Iraq, when most of the bombs were already precision-guided, gross targeting errors killed many civilians.)
(…)
So how did Israel do it? The only possible explanation is that people in Gaza have been informing the Israelis exactly where Hamas fighters and leaders are hiding, and where weapons are stored. No doubt some informers are merely corrupt, paid agents earning a living. But others must choose to provide intelligence because they oppose Hamas, whose extremism inflicts poverty, suffering and now death on the civilian population for the sake of launching mostly ineffectual rockets into Israel. Hamas completely disregards the day-to-day welfare of all Gazans in order to pursue its millenarian vision of an Islamic Palestine.
Some in Gaza must also resent Iran’s role in instigating the barrage of rockets fired on Israel. And all must know that the longer-range rockets are supplied by Iran along with money for Hamas leaders, while ordinary Palestinians languish in poverty. Senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayan, killed on Jan. 1, was a poorly paid academic, yet he died with his four wives and 10 of his children in spacious quarters. He obviously had enough money to heed the Quranic injunction against marrying more wives than one can afford. That too must arouse bitter opposition among poor Palestinian civilians, inducing some to help Israel target Hamas. Perhaps these informers include Fatah members, further antagonized by persecution. Last week alone, some 50 were reportedly tortured by Hamas.
Hamas won the 2006 election because it was the only available alternative when a majority of voters were disgusted by Fatah’s blatant corruption. Since then, many nonfundamentalist Palestinians have been oppressed by the puritanical prohibitions imposed by Hamas, while all Gazans have been greatly impoverished.
(…)With few exceptions, Israeli ground forces are not advancing frontally but are instead mounting a multiplicity of raids. If their target intelligence remains as good as it was during the air attack, they will run out of targets in a matter of days. That is when a cease-fire with credible monitoring would be possible and desirable for both sides as the only alternative to renewed occupation.
Hamas will claim a win no matter what happens, but then so did Hezbollah in 2006. And yet, for the most part, Hezbollah remains immobile and the Israeli northern border with Lebanon remains quiet. If Israel can achieve the same with Hamas in Gaza, it would be a significant victory.
Fra Haaretz
Military Intelligence chief Major General Amos Yadlin told the Cabinet on Sunday that the Islamist organization’s ability to fight has been hurt by the devastating assault Israel launched Dec. 27.
He said Hamas was now suffering from ammunition shortages and has been hard hit by the deaths of senior militants.But despite this, Yadlin said the group is not expected to raise a white flag. Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin told the Cabinet that many Gazans were furious with Hamas for bringing a disaster on Gaza.
(…)
“The leaders of Hamas and the armed wing are hiding in bunkers, hospitals and foreign missions,” Yehezkel said, basing his information on an intelligence briefing received by ministers.
(…)
An Internet site affiliated with Fatah reported Sunday that top ranking members of Hamas’ military have escaped to Egypt.According to the report, some of the most senior commanders of the military wing, including Ra’ad al-Atar, commander of Hamas’ military wing in Rafah, and Mohammad Sanwar, commander of Azz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Khan Yunis and one of the militants reportedly behind the abduction of Israel Defense Forcers soldier Gilad Shalit, managed to flee to the Sinai town of el-Arish.According to the report, other Hamas seniors, including Yichi al-Abassi, a member of the Hamas government in Gaza, also crossed into Egypt. The report has not been verified by Israeli sources.
The Hamas terrorist organization has reportedly executed several Gaza residents accused of passing information to Israel. The victims were accused of helping the IAF conduct air strikes and IDF ground forces carry out assassinations in Gaza.
(…)
“We have had reports of Palestinians being held at gunpoint in order to put them at the front, in order to increase the number of Palestinian casualties on the Gaza side,” Lerner said. “Hamas is doing it all the time.”
According to intelligence reports, he added, the terrorists are stopping Gaza residents from evacuating their homes in order to flee the fighting. “Hamas is not letting them go,” he said. “They want to increase the numbers of wounded and dead Palestinians for the cameras.”
(…)
Hamas terrorists have also been stealing the food, medical supplies, medicines and other items shipped into Gaza for the impoverished residents by international aid organizations.
At least two convoys of aid trucks were hijacked by Hamas terrorists in the past several days, one carrying fuel and the other carrying basic food commodities and medical supplies. The trucks were seized by Hamas and allied terrorist forces as they entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom Crossing.
Sources have said that Hamas takes a cut of all international aid that arrives in Gaza through the crossings. Supplies that are not kept are sold to the residents that were meant to receive them for free, in order to raise money for Hamas terrorist operations.
Man hører ofte at bitterheden over Israels angreb skaber endnu flere terrorister for fremtiden, hvilket ikke blot betyder at det er Israel, der skaber terroristerne i første omgang, men også - og for venstrefløjen mere foruroligende - at Hamas udtrykker den palæstinensiske folkesjæl. For Hvorfor kan man ellers være sikker på at palæstinenserne vil vende sin vrede mod Israel frem for det Hamas, der har det som sit højeste formål at udslette Israel frem for at skabe et Palæstina for det palæstinensiske folk? At Hamas har brugt alle ressourcer på at smugle rakketter til en væbnet konfrontation med overmagten i stedet for at skaffe mad og medicin og hvad, der ellers mangler til folket vil kun accepteres af palæstinenserne, hvis de deler præmissen bag Hamas groteske prioritering.
Men, som artiklerne og almindelig sund fornuft siger kan almindelige mennesker ikke opretholde et had til et eller andet folk på den anden side af grænsen over sin egen dagligdag i det lange løb. Israels reaktion er forudsigelig og forståelig for alle, mens Hamas politik er ideologisk og unødvendig. Tilslutningen til Hamas må tage voldsomt skade af denne krig når ledelsens interesser ikke er folkets. Man bekæmpede jo stik modsat nutidig logik nazismen i Tyskland ved at slå langt de fleste nazister ihjel og fordi nazisterne ikke repræsenterede det tyske folk, men var en forbryderisk anomali, der gennem vold, løgn og terror havde tiltvunget sig magten under helt bestemte og usædvanlige vilkår opstod, der ikke to nazister for hver og en, der faldt. Og man sammensparede ikke nazistisk anglofobisk had i de efterfølgende tyske generationer. Det var tydeligt for flertallet af tyskere at Nazisterne ikke tjente det tyske folk og at de Allierede reagerede naturligt og forudsigeligt.