Smoke rises from buildings following an Israeli airstrike in eastern Gaze City neighbourhood of Shejaiya during a military operation on July 23, 2014. Photo: MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images John Baird, the foreign affairs minister, has elicited the usual outrage from the usual quarters over his recent declarations about Hamas’ war with Israel, currently in its third week. In particular Baird has raised eyebrows with his blunt assertion that Hamas, the terrorist organization that holds power in Gaza, is solely responsible for the now more than 700 deaths on the Palestinian side. It’s more fodder for those who are convinced Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a foreign-policy Neanderthal, and John Baird his senior club-wielder.
But weighing against all that, is this: The facts are on Baird’s side. And the test of that is simply to pose this one question: What can Israel logically do, other than what it is now doing?
There is no minimizing, explaining away, looking away from, or justifying the horror of what is unfolding in Gaza. Thursday, The Associated Press reported, Israeli shells hit a United Nations school. Fifteen people died and many more were injured. The dead and wounded, according to reports, were fleeing the violence outside. Gaza is crowded, poor, with ramshackle and shoddy services, even in times of relative peace. For Palestinian families trapped between Hamas rocketeers and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), with water and food running short, the suffering is unimaginable.
That is why, virtually since the conflict began 17 days ago, there have been efforts towards a ceasefire. The first, brokered by Egypt, was accepted by Israel but rejected by Hamas. This week Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal torpedoed the idea again by insisting, from the safety of his perch in Qatar, that there can be no truce before Israel’s eight-year economic blockade of Gaza is lifted, a border crossing with Egypt is opened, and Palestinian prisoners are released, the BBC reported. That slams the door on any ceasefire plan, because these are conditions Israel cannot accept.
It is clear today, as it has been since Hamas launched its first volley of rockets, that the organization’s leadership wants the conflict to continue. It is also clear that it is seeking precisely the outcomes we’re now seeing, that is to say the bombing of schools by the IDF. Its strategic goal is to isolate Israel internationally. The fact that such schools are being used by Hamas to stockpile rockets is sure to be eclipsed by photos of the carnage.
Why can’t Israel accede to Hamas’ demands? The first part of the answer is quite simple: Hamas wants all Israeli Jews dead, and an Islamist theocratic dictatorship established over all the current territory now encompassed by the State of Israel. The organization says so explicitly in its founding charter, which dates back to 1988. “The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them),” reads Article 7 of the charter, “until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!”
There is no negotiating with Hamas; no two-state solution; no land for peace.
Part two of the answer is linked to part one. Hamas is not a government, as westerners typically understand the term. It cannot really even be categorized among thuggish governments or garden-variety dictatorships. It is a terrorist group, with some of the powers of a state. It has launched numerous suicide bombers against Israel, successfully, killing hundreds of Israeli civilians in mass murders on buses and in restaurants or hotels.
Hamas has habitually sent dogs and donkeys laden with explosives towards Israeli targets, and continues to do so, according to a report from Britain’s London Daily Telegraph. It has built an extensive network of assault tunnels into Israel. And, Hamas deliberately fires rockets from densely populated areas, knowing most of these will be shot down, apparently in the hope of drawing return fire, which furthers its propaganda aims. In other words, Hamas appears to be deliberately provoking and perpetuating the killing of its own people. To that long list of barbarities we can now add the strategic targeting of international civilian aviation, with rockets aimed at Ben-Gurion airport.
Can Israel stop the barrages of rocket attacks by means other than those it is now employing? If so, no one has yet properly explained just how. To belabour the point, the rockets are launched from densely populated areas in Gaza. There is no desert outpost or collection of empty tents or mostly deserted factories to symbolically target with Cruise missiles, as U.S. president Bill Clinton did in Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998.
Horrible though the reality is, Hamas has put Israel in a position where it has no choice but to defend its citizens. Canadians, Americans, and Europeans would not tolerate for a day the terror Israelis are being subjected to now. Baird has been among the clearest voices internationally in describing this situation for what it is. For that he deserves credit, and not the reflexive brickbats of “human rights” advocates who have grown far too accustomed to casting Israel as the villain, regardless of the facts.
Email mdentandt@postmedia.com
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