For the past several days, Hamas has not sent incendiary balloons across the border into Israel. One might think this is good news, but is it?
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Unless Jerusalem is provoked, it does not act against the terrorist organization, allowing Hamas to use periods of calm to regain strength that would be used against Israel in concert with Iran and Hezbollah once hostilities break again.
If Hamas was to continue with its most recent provocations, Jerusalem would have no choice but to take action and potentially deny the organization the concessions it seeks.
Clearly, Israel has learned nothing from its history of prisoner exchanges, in which it has released thousands of murderers only to have them engage in more terrorism.
Israel has in the past entered into such agreements in order to get back MIAs or other Israelis who had been captured by Hamas. This time, however, what Hamas has to offer are bodies of two fallen soldiers and two civilians who crossed the border into the strip. Even if Hamas were to receive only a fraction of its demands, Israel would get back bodies at the price of many Israelis whose names we will only get to know after they are killed.
The matter of financial aid should also be looked at in a strategic context. The "Hamas state" is the flagship of the Muslim Brotherhood, for it is the only "state" in which they are in power. That is also why Turkey and Qatar are so eager to support it.
The brotherhood is keen on returning the entire Arab world to an era of violence against Israel. They have set out to prove that it is possible to bomb Israel, kill Jews and burn their forests and fields, and still receive utilities, fuel, and medical services at the same time.
If no one holds Hamas responsible for waging a constant war, and any military damage is easily repaired with aid from the US and Israel, why would it stop killing Jews? This option – in which barbaric violence brings gratification, prestige and livelihood – is the most dangerous message to Israel and the whole region.
Many in Israel prefer not to look at the broader context. They tell themselves that the Palestinian people have turned to violence out of despair brought about by ignorance or economic hardship.
In reality, it is the Palestinian addiction to violence and their deliberate avoidance of creating a state that brought about the hardship in the first place. If one looks at the situation in an unbiased matter, one will see that it is hope, rather than desperation, that drives the Palestinian people: the hope that their violent instincts could be gratified, that they could punish the Jews for building prosperous lives and finally put an end to their existence in the Middle East.
This hope increases when the Jews are forced to essentially "subsidize" the war against them for fear that Gaza will fall into a humanitarian crisis and lend them a hand with a false expectation that it would curb the violence.
Let us hope that the Palestinians will continue, as they always have, to prove the disappointing truth about their national priorities, so that Israel would have no choice but stop them by force.
This is what saved the Jewish state when the Palestinians rejected the Partition Plan in 1947, and what torpedoed Yasser Arafat's plans during the Second Intifada (the Palestinian terrorism campaign some 20 years ago).
Israel would be well-served if it employs the same approach elsewhere, not only in Gaza. The fact that many Israeli Arabs took part recently in violent clashes in Israel has helped convince Israeli military officials that they must prepare the Israel Defense Forces for the scenario in which some citizens would help Hamas fight the Jewish state.
A long-term truce is desirable, but a so-called calm that is only used by our enemies to grow stronger would be unacceptable.
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