23 July 2014
War is a serious means for attaining serious ends. The waves of rocket attacks by Hamas against
Israel are certainly serious means, but what serious end is in view for Hamas?
Territorial gain cannot be the goal, certainly not the
immediate goal of the acts of war committed by Hamas against Israel. For the foreseeable future, Hamas and the
Palestinian people they govern will be confined to the Gaza strip, a
well-defined piece of territory. Israel
would gain no respite should territory be ceded to Hamas as a gesture, and
Hamas lacks the military power to seize and hold Israeli territory. Gain of territory cannot be the serious end in
view.
The sheer inconveniencing of Israeli citizens and Israeli
commerce, while it may be occurring, is not a serious goal because it cannot be
maintained. It is not a step towards
something higher. Israeli retaliation
against Gaza makes that goal not a paying proposition in the interim.
The declared goal of Hamas is the complete destruction of
the Israeli state, and these rocket attacks will not achieve that. Israel is not going to surrender to Hamas
because of these attacks. Indeed, the
success of the Iron Dome anti-missile system is making Hamas’s barrages look
feeble. On the other hand, serious
destruction is being meted out by Israel against Gaza. Air attacks, artillery, and now a ground
invasion of Gaza by Israel provoked by the Hamas rocket offensive is proving
what an illusion it was to believe that Israel would surrender to a rocket
barrage.
What goals could possibly be aimed at by Hamas, since
neither the surrender of Israel, the gain of territory, retaliation, nor the
relief of other pressures by Israel is in the offing?
Several goals come to mind.
The first is that Hamas is proving its worth to its supporters and
paymasters. Israel is hated by many
other countries in the Middle East; the destruction of Israel is the declared
national goal of Iran, for example.
Hamas did not build the missiles it is firing into Israel. The missiles Hamas is launching into Israel
had to be supplied by someone, and manufactured somewhere other than Gaza.
A missile capable of reaching Tel Aviv from Gaza takes up a
lot of space. Thousands of rockets
somehow had to be transported by sea and delivered to Gaza through an efficient
Israeli naval blockade. This fact
suggests that the missiles were delivered through Egypt and moved past the
border controls between Egypt and Gaza.
These missiles would not have been delivered to Gaza at such cost and
risk unless it was understood that Hamas would launch them against Israel. Thus Hamas is acting as an agent to the state
which supplied them the missiles. It is
doing what is expected of it.
The benefit to the state which supplied Hamas the missiles
is that it gets to see Israel harassed at no physical cost to itself. It is the Gazans who suffer Israel’s wrath,
not Iran for example.
Hamas also is enforcing its control over the Palestinians of
Gaza. The goal that Israel must be
destroyed is resisted at the cost of one’s life in Gaza. Hamas will tolerate no dissent, on this point
above all. The Palestinians of Gaza have
been dragooned into a war with Israel.
They are obliged to use their women and children as human shields
protecting Hamas’s missile storage sites, an act contrary to the Geneva
Conventions. Being able to show civilian
casualties to the world and offering these as examples of Israeli brutality is
another goal of Hamas in this campaign.
Who would be convinced by such a thing? The scenes of destruction and the sight of
wounded children have certainly raised emotions all around the world. Emotions would most likely be raised
favorably for Hamas among those who are already convinced of the evil of
Israel.
Thus Hamas by this rocket offensive against Israel is
proving its worth as an agent and client of its supporters. It is demonstrating its power over the
Palestinians of Gaza by dragooning them into the war with Israel.
But Gaza and its Palestinian population clearly are things
to be used by Hamas. The destruction of
Gaza and the creation of misery for its population are useful to Hamas since it
can justify repression of dissent as a necessary war emergency.
Hamas governs Gaza, but to the benefit of itself not to the
benefit of the people of Gaza.
-30-
Published in the Friday, August 1, 2014 edition of the Hamilton Spectator
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