The Hamas Death Factory
The focus of this article is on Hamas. Operation Cast Lead would not have been needed, and indeed can be stopped immediately, if Hamas, a terror organization that calls in its Charter to the destruction of the Jewish State, were to stop its efforts to attain this goal.
Hamas has turned Gaza into a Factory of Death. I highlight below some of the Factory’s main characteristics.
The war that rages on has its front lines in Argentina and UK,India and USA, China and Venezuela, Russia and Egypt. It is a war in the area of public opinion, and we are all soldiers in the Public Diplomacy Front.
We are all part – and are likely victims – in a greater struggle between Sunni and Shiite Islam to achieve world domination. Therefore, we need to understand the threat. Only then will we be able to search and find the wisdom and courage with which to fight, with which to prevail as a victor.
The 20th Day, a Recap and an Update
January 15th,2009. Day 20 of Operation “Cast Lead,” Israel’s attempt at stopping the firing of rockets from Gaza to Israeli cities and preventing further armament of Hamas in Gaza.
To achieve these goals, the manufacturing infrastructure in Gaza had to be destroyed and the very intensive smuggling operation from Egypt into Gaza had to be stopped. The enormous caches of advanced rockets (improved Grad2 and others) must also be destroyed. They have a very long shelf life and will eventually be used against Israel.
There is yet another unstated goal: A 22 year old soldier has been held by Hamas in Gaza after being kidnapped from Israel on6/25/2006. Gilad Shalit is in enemy’s hands for 930 days. He is afforded no visitation rights. The International Red Cross has not been allowed to see him. Gilad is the human face of Israel’s promise to its mothers and fathers that their sons and daughters will always come back home –that Israel will do everything possible to uphold this promise.
Operation Cast Lead rages on in Gaza. 9AM in Israel and already more than ten rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza toward Israeli cities. 11 soldiers were wounded during the night’s operations during which 35 armed gunmen were hit, mostly in aerial attacks directed by ground forces.Israel’s Air Force (IAF) attacked approximately 70 terrorist sites, including a mosque in Rafah used to stockpile rockets and served as an assembly area for senior operatives involved in launching rockets; 14 cells of armed gunmen; 14 sites used to launch rockets and mortars at Israeli communities and cities; five weapon storage facilities located in, and one tunnel located under, houses of Hamas operatives.
A Real War
This is war, although not by name (since Gaza is not a country andHamas is a terrorist operation). People die, needlessly. “Needlessly” since the war can be stopped as soon as Hamas stops firing and ends its race for rearmament. There is a third unstated pre-condition: Hamas needs to change it Charter that calls for the destruction of the Jewish State. But Hamas does not want to stop.
Hamas also could have released Gilad Shalit any any point during the last 930 days or during the period of regrouping (Tahadia) that preceded Operation Cast Lead, but it chose not to do so.
Instead, Hamas uses the 22 year old Israeli soldier in the most cynical way, teasing Israel constantly. Now he is alive, now he is no longer safe. Now we do not hear or see him, next who knows what may be. Hamas’s fellow Iranian crony in the region, Hizbollah, used Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, may they rest in peace, in a similar manner, finally trading in their body parts to force Israel to do the unthinkable – releasing hundreds of terrorists, including one who for the pure barbaric joy of the act, smashed the skull of a four year old girl – just because she was Jewish, just because she was Israeli, JUST BECAUSE THERE IS ISRAEL.
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