Israel needs to continue its war to destroy Hamas. Yes, it’s a nasty war but Hamas is a nasty organization. It is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and driving all Jews out of Palestine, or killing them. Israel cannot allow Hamas to remain and reestablish itself in Gaza. The whole mess exists today because Israel withdrew from Gaza and allowed Hamas to take control. Hamas took control because residents of Gaza voted for them. They won a plurality in the Palestinians’ last parliamentary election and drove members of the rival Fatah party out of Gaza, killing any that did not flee. Gaza’s citizens, like the citizens of Germany in 1933, made a fateful decision that is now costing them dearly.
Currently the war in Gaza in now in a phase that is focusing on Khan Younis in the south of Gaza. Israel has mostly destroyed Hamas’ presence in Gaza City, in the north, nearly leveling the city in the process. Some Hamas forces remain active under Gaza City, fighting the Israelis, who in turn are fighting to root them out.
Now the main attention is Khan Younis and Israeli forces are facing a vast, complex network of tunnels there. Tunnels favor the defender. Tunnels in the Pacific Islands gave U. S. forces fits during World War II. The islands were full of natural caves and the Japanese army had expanded on these, digging tunnels. The idea was to make taking the island as costly as possible for us. Japanese soldiers fought fanatically, usually to the death. Officers subscribed to a code of honor that considered surrender as cowardly. Soldiers were encouraged to die for the emperor, who their religion taught was a god. Besides, they were told they would be tortured, and then killed, by their American captors if they surrendered. Few Japanese soldiers, other than those too badly injured to resist, were captured.
The result was that American troops faced a savage fight digging Japanese forces out of their tunnels and caves.
This is what the Israelis are facing in Gaza. They are facing a savage enemy who are quite willing to die fighting because they believe they will receive a special reward from their god for dying as martyrs. Along with having plenty of men ready to die to earn their 70 camels, or whatever they think they will get, Hamas has had 17 years to build this tunnel network. Hamas is also quite willing to use non-combatants as human shields, intermingling their military infrastructure with civilian infrastructure. Tunnel entrances are often concealed in homes and they used sections of hospitals as command and control facilities. Doing this has made the Israelis hesitant in the past to go for the throat in past conflicts with Hamas. It also allows Hamas, in the present war, to maximize non-combatant deaths and suffering for propaganda purposes.
Israel should have taken vigorous military action to eradicate Hamas years ago. The mess we have today was made worse by this hesitation.
The world is just going to have to sit back and give the Israelis room to do what they must do. Joe and Congress are going to have to continue to support Israel, both diplomatically and with military hardware.
Hamas cannot be allowed to survive. It is like a cancer. If even a small portion of it survives, the cancer will grow back and we will have the disease again.
