Since Israel’s war against Hamas has started, the editorial position of the Washington Post has been that Israel has a right to defend its citizens, but it’s better off not doing so. Yesterday’s staff editorial, Crossroads in Gaza is more of this approach.
Israel’s leaders are on the verge of giving Hamas its wish. Its top leaders also rejected the U.N. cease-fire resolution passed Thursday night; now they appear to be debating whether to throw thousands of reserve soldiers into a street-by-street battle. It’s not clear what the aim of the new offensive might be. Some Israelis are calling for the overthrow of Hamas’s rule in Gaza; others urge a more limited operation to seize a strip of territory along the border with Egypt, which would allow Israel to more directly attack tunnels through which Hamas smuggles weapons.
The wish of Hamas, according to the Post, are higher civilian casualties so that Hamas can win the propaganda war. But as David Horovitz writes, the fighting is taking a huge toll on Hamas.
Israeli ministers were told on Sunday that at least some of Hamas’s leaders in Gaza are desperate for a cease-fire, on almost any terms. Hamas has sustained significant losses. Some of its fighters are going AWOL. Others have been captured. Amir Mansi, Gaza City’s Kassam commander, was reduced to firing his own rocket at Israel on Saturday, and was killed by the IDF in the process.
More and more Gazans, the intelligence briefing went on, though overwhelmingly blaming Israel for their plight and redoubled in their hostility, are nonetheless also furious with Hamas for having built bunkers and tunnels but not bomb-shelters; for looting aid supplies; for using civilians as human shields while the leadership hides away.
Two things to note about this. One is that Israel is successfully degrading Hamas’s ability to inflict terror on its population. And the second is that Hamas is losing political support. It’s hard to understand why either of these is a bad development, but the Post tells us that they are.
Either operation would probably do Israel more harm than good — while raising the already considerable political cost of the war for the United States as well as for Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, Israel’s de facto allies against Hamas. Israeli officials have rightly been wary of taking action that would leave their troops bogged down in Gaza — but several of the options being considered would do just that. For now, there is no responsible Palestinian party to which Israel could hand control of Gaza or even the land near the Egyptian border; the Palestinian Authority, even if willing, remains too weak. Nor is it clear that Israel is capable of stopping either the smuggling or the rocket launches by military means. During the last several years before Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, it was unable to do so.
That last sentence is extremely misleading. No Israel couldn’t stop all the smuggling before 2005. But since then and since Israel surrendered the Philadelphi corridor the smuggling got much worse. What the Post doesn’t appreciate is that Israel faced a threat and is now fighting to reduce the threat. If the Post objects to that, it might as well admit that Israel ought not to defend itself instead of hiding behind such transparent arguments.
But by looking to what will follow the fighting, the Post misses an essential point that Barry Rubin makes.
In addition, Israelis know that Hamas is totally dedicated to their personal and collective destruction. The group will not moderate, cannot be bought off, and will not respect any agreement it makes. As a result, the usual kinds of diplomatic tools–concessions, confidence-building, agreements, moderation resulting from having governmental responsibilities, will not work. Any solution short of Hamas’s fall from power will bring more fighting in future.
Rubin lays at six reasonable gains Israel can make from the current fighting. While he acknowledges that some of the positive results may be temporary. Still the chances of there being any long term gains if Hamas remains in power are virtually zero.
And yet it appears that the Washington Post wants Hamas to remain in power, ensuring ongoing instability.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
