Israel on War Alert - Operation Swords of Iron enacted, page-2806

The idea that Hamas was the peaceful democratically elected government of Gaza and in reaction to Israeli provocations launched a strike against military targets is a fallacy. It stretched credulity to imagine that this attack by Hamas was a spontaneous reaction. It was obviously planned for years.

The major failing was the Israeli Government giving Hamas the benefit of the doubt that they might be willing to continue a truce and actually govern Gaza peacefully. But the reality is that Hamas is an Iranian sponsored band of thugs and terrorists who violently ousted the Palestinian Authority and have used gangster tactics to rule Gaza indoctrinating disaffected youths with their violent extremism. Clearly they have been planning and accumulating an arsenal of weapons and munitions and training for such an attack for a long time. Hamas is cynically using the local Palestinian population as shields. From Hamas standpoint, an Israeli death is good, but a Palestinian death (especially a child) is even better for political propaganda purposes. The masters pulling the strings and financing and supplying the terrorist are without a doubt the Iranian military who are hoping to start a wider conflict.

So Israeli hopes of a status quo are dashed, and they know they have to walk into a trap that Hamas have spent years preparing with hostages, booby traps, tunnels and house to house assaults. The reality is it will probably be impossible to rescue the hostages from fanatical terrorists who have had ample time to prepare and want to prevent the local population from evacuating so they can use them as shields and for propaganda. Sadly there is no peaceful way out of this, a two state solution can't be negotiated with terrorists like Hamas and the Iranian proxies in control. They are not trustworthy and do not want a peaceful solution. Their hope is for more extreme violence, death and publicity to gather sympathy from an outraged audience.