Victory in Death

Victory in Death

Last week’s Gaza horror show of beachside death and this week’s continuation, complete with bouncing missiles, was the imaginable orgy of dysfunctional tactics that was predicted by the deeply cynical or the merely realistic. Trading fire across the Gaza/Israel border and the resultant carnage that destroyed a beach-picnicking family should have surprised no one. But within this Qassam missile offense/artillery shell response lies a dynamic, a logical divide that cuts to the bone of the Palestinians and the Israeli war. Throw in the pre-ordained response of the world to the Gaza beach slaughter, and the cycle of distortion is complete. However, take a step back and analyze the thoughts behind the actions.
When the Israelis unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, the optimists hoped that the Palestinians would utilize the opportunity to govern themselves with an eye towards a future of commerce and a robust civil life. The cynics predicted a new outpost of terrorists and unfettered aggression towards Israel. The latter proved correct. Whatever the Hamas platform, it is not about Singapore on the Med.
Within days of the withdrawal, the Qassam rockets started to fly towards Siderot. These basement-made flying bombs have no real strategic purpose other than to terrorize the civilians in the nearby Israeli city. As they have little or no accuracy, they often just land on Gazans, and over a dozen women and children have been killed in villages just south of the border. These unlucky victims have died without much outcry. There is a noticeable lack of huge funerals for these unfortunates, and certainly the world media pays little attention. But back to the Qassams, what would be a Palestinian strategic victory from these attacks? Certainly not when they fall into desert sand. Certainly not when they crash into a recently vacated bedroom and cause just physical damage. An injury would be nice; actually hitting someone would be useful. Best of all, however, would be if a Qassam actually landed in a packed schoolroom. If you shoot something into the air and have no control over where it will land, your political message is, we just want to kill anyone over there.
Is there anyone paying attention to the Palestinian message who could not picture the Palestinian “street” celebrating if a dozen kindergartners in Siderot were killed? Would Hamas or Islamic Jihad apologize for the slaughter? Would they hold their fire until they had accurate missiles capable of targeting a military base? It’s doubtful; everyone and everything in Israel is a target, so the wild firing or missiles aimed at everyplace and no place in particular is internally logical.
However, it was the Israelis who were unlucky last week. In response to the inaccurate Qassams, the Israelis responded with pinpoint air attacks on launchers (both human and physical) and artillery shelling. The latter may be responsible for the carnage to the picnicking family. Whether it was or wasn’t old ordinance or a buried Hamas mine is irrelevant because it is the Palestinian response and the world’s reaction that is of interest. Just as in Jenin after the Palestinian Passover massacre of Jews, the Palestinians got to play the big-time victim. Taking no notice of or responsibility for their actions that preceded or precipitated this attack, they were outraged by the deaths of innocents—the very result they were attempting to cause by launching missiles north. What good fortune to play victim again on the world stage, to have Palestinian blood and guts from injuries inflicted by the Jews televised everywhere. Even Israelis were mortified and the army rushed to shed doubt on the whole operation.
If the Palestinians really cared about their women and children they would stop using populated northern Gaza to launch missiles of destruction and death across an internationally recognized border. How can they succeed? If the newer, longer-range, more accurate Katyushas actually kill Israelis, what do you think will be the response? It’s easy to imagine a few days of semi-carpet bombing of every building in Gaza that could be used to store these smuggled missiles. What would France do if missiles fired from the Basque region hit Toulouse? It seems that a key element of the Palestinian strategy is to provoke a military response in the hope that blood will be shed, the more innocent the better. To what end no one knows. The only logical one comes around once again to forcing the quartet, or perhaps an entire symphony, to back a two state solution with U.N. or NATO forces at the border. In this scenario, the more mayhem the better.
A darker semi-logic holds that the Palestinians just want blood and war, violence and hatred forever. Under this logic, victory is not an end to be expected but a process of attacks, responses, and funerals calling for more attacks. If that is the Palestinian strategy, we’re in for a long hot millennium, because having given the Palestinians back their Gaza in the hopes of reducing bloodshed, the Israelis are not in a forgiving mood.