Hamas' fantasy of a "March of Return" last Friday left them disappointed. Hamas had called for a mass procession to leave the Gaza Strip and penetrate into Israeli territory to coincide with Land Day, a Palestinian national commemoration of a 1976 incident in which Israeli forces killed six unarmed Arab citizens and wounded about a hundred amid violent riots. Israeli forces spilled a relatively small amount of blood on Friday, however, mainly from instigators and those who stepped too close to the fence, a restricted military zone. As usual, Al Jazeera incited, instigated and then did nothing.
All who tried to paint a picture of dozens, even hundreds of dead in head-on collisions with the Israel Defense Forces failed, as after the day of delusion, the sum total of the victims did not come close to the number of dead in Syria, Yemen, Iraq or Libya.
None of the "spontaneous" rabble succeeded in passing IDF forces that positioned themselves to meet them, calm and ready. Ten of the dead shot in the military's restricted zone were known to security forces in any case, and were thankfully erased from the list of living terrorists.
The clashes near the fence were a foolish attempt to divert the Gazan residents' attention from the real issues of water, electricity, economy and sewage they suffer from because of Hamas. The idiotic attempt to escalate the situation, clash with the IDF and cause mass infiltration into Israeli territory is an additional failure in a long list of catastrophes attributed to Hamas' abysmal leadership.
The plan is to build up tension and recruit people for a big explosion expected for May 15, Nakba Day, which commemorates the displacement of Palestinian refugees during Israel's War of Independence, known in Arabic as the "Nakba" ("catastrophe"). This is also a day after the U.S. Embassy in Israel plans to move to Jerusalem. None of the Gazans, not even those in Hamas leadership, truly believe they are capable of infiltrating into Israel and taking over Jaffa, Haifa and Acre from the Jews. The cynical game the Palestinians play with their own lives highlights the danger their declared intentions put our lives in.
Indeed, the violent situation that Hamas intentionally created – using women and children, sending people to commit suicide as human fuel – hastens the arrival of protesters, so more blood will be spilled in clashes and the international airwaves will be saturated with condemnation. It is strange that we heard no condemnation against Hamas from organizations such as UNICEF on the use of women and children as expendable ammunition.
As a totalitarian organization, Hamas will live on tomorrow because the Palestinians do not have the means to remove their real oppressor from off their backs. In the meantime, the results are smaller than foretold, and at the end of the day we heard the usual "balanced" voices to de-escalate the situation from U.N. Secretary General António Guterres and U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, while the traditional voices from Turkey and Qatar – Muslim Brotherhood strongholds at loggerheads with Egypt as well – condemned Israel. Condemnation also came from Jordan, a teetering kingdom forced to voice condemnation against us whenever its internal security is at risk.
The truth is that no one acted out of the ordinary except for the self-righteous Israeli Left, which instead of identifying with its own people under attack demanded the appointment of a committee of inquiry because of alleged hostilities against "innocent lives." Maybe the Left wanted to drown out its embarrassment after being caught up in its own lies. In the meantime, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh demanded from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to remove sanctions on Gaza so that maybe they will earn some pittance from their miserable March of Return.
It seems that everything remained intact. Jaffa, Haifa and Acre were not "liberated," just as the rockets and tunnels did not lead to the massacre Hamas desires. Neither the mines buried near the fence nor the tractors sabotaged amounted to anything. The world is dealing with real bloodbaths in other regions of the Arab world, not in a cynical episode involving Hamas and its wretched Gazan victims.
In the meantime, the Palestinian Authority declared a day of strikes and rage on Friday, as it cannot allow Hamas to steal the show. In addition, the PA ambassador to the U.N. asked for an international committee of inquiry to investigate "Israeli crimes," of course.
As far as we are concerned, this was just a prelude to the IDF being forced to strike the wild incursion and nip it in the bud. The stronger the first strike is, the weaker the world's support will be for other demonstrations as the efforts of the organizers and mercenaries will subside.
This is a model the Palestinians will try to improve because they have failed. Out of all terrorist organizations that acted against us until now, the only ones remaining are those whose last ray of hope depends on the mercy of the Zionists and the empathy of Christians in Europe, even though their Muslim Brotherhood teachers define them as "infidels" and "Crusaders."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quoted in Al Jazeera praising the soldiers' conduct and vowing that the barrier will hold. The Gazans, however, will continue on the same futile path.
