Conflict in Gaza far from over

Early Sunday morning, Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire in the conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Make no mistake, however, despite Israel ceasing offensive ground operations in Gaza, this war will likely not end any time soon. Hamas has made it clear that they have no intention of honoring the ceasefire and at the time of this writing have fired at least fifteen more rockets into Israel.

There will only be peace in the region when there is victory. Victory is when one side admits defeat or rendered unable to operate. As with the war with Hezbollah in 2006, Israel’s leaders have failed to secure victory. Instead, they engage in half-measures that weaken their enemies without ever defeating them. They then reach temporary peace agreements, which their enemies break as soon as they are able to. Hamas and Hezbollah practice the principle of hudna, which was first established by Muhammed. Under hudna, the Muslim forces make treaties when they are weak, then build their forces until they are strong enough to break the treaty. This is exactly what we’ve been seeing for decades, and we will continue to see it until Israel defeats Hamas and Hezbollah.

So what role do we play in this conflict? Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a conference call with conservative bloggers last week and told them, “The most important thing [friends of Israel can do] is to tell the truth…Get the facts straight….the facts do count….the sequence counts.”

So, in line with Mr. Netanyahu’s request, here are the facts. Hamas has been launching rockets into Israel for over eight years. They do so while hiding in mosques and schools, knowing that Israel will be condemned for harming civilians when they retaliate. Hamas has also run a public relations campaign that has taken full advantage of international media that are more than willing to make Israel look bad. Just about every picture or video you’ve seen in the news that makes Israel look bad has been staged. The most glaring example from this conflict is video CNN used which depicted doctors attempting to give CPR to a dead Palestinian boy. This was quickly exposed as fraudulent by Little Green Footballs – the same blog that exposed Dan Rather’s forged memos. Several doctors who watched the video immediately noted that the Palestinian doctors were not really performing CPR, but lightly pressing on the chest of the boy, who was likely still alive. CNN removed the video from their website, but the accompanying story was left intact.

Peace follows victory, and as long as Hamas controls the Palestinian Authority and continues to receive support from Iran, there will not be the victory necessary for peace.


[Andrew Lacy is a Broadcasting Major at UNL]