Hamas Victory - Think Not — Poliquicks

The AP article by Karin Laub, 23 November 2012, says: “Hamas has emerged from battle with the triumphal sense of a hard-won game change.”

This is like a fighter rising from a Muhammad Ali knockout saying I bet I hurt your hand.

It would seem more likely that Israeli leaders, smarting from a losing choice of endorsing Mitt Romney, wanted to acquiesce to U.S. demands, conveyed by Sec State Hillary Clinton, for a cease fire.

Every Hamas office and military building was destroyed. An unknown number of Hamas fighters lost their lives along with much of their equipment. Gaza lost over 100 civilian dead while Israel lost 8.

Doing anything to jeopardize the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, which called for an end to Gaza rocket fire on Israel and Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, would not be in Israel’s interest for now but it is not over.

The Israel independent Maagar Mohot poll released on Friday shows 49 percent of respondents feel Israel should have kept going. Only thirty-one percent supported the government’s decision to stop and the rest had no opinion. Also, twenty-nine percent thought Israel should have sent ground troops to invade Gaza.

It would seem that the Israeli voting public favor hoe regime actions.

However, StrategyPage.com reported that one factor Israel may have considered in agreeing to the recent ceasefire with Hamas was a possible shortage of Tamir missiles (used by the Iron Dome

system to shoot down rockets) and the problem was that Israel was not sure how

many long (20 kilometers) range rockets Hamas had left. Hamas had managed to about a thousand rockets in a week,

This cease fire is not a durable peace that US said was the objective. Also, it probably is not enforceable by Hamas because they do not control splinter groups in their territory that probably will not consider themselves bound by the ceasefire.

Hamas has already said it will not stop arming itself and will continue the struggle. Israel reports that a spy satellite has recorded Iran loading new Fajr-5 rockets on shipping. Hamas is still isolated form open reinforcement of its military equipment as the GAZA Egypt border is still under scrutiny and Israel will not lift the restrictions along its border with Hamas.

The New York Times, 23 November, 2012, in an article by David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker: “For Israel, Gaza Conflict Is Test for an Iran Confrontation” wrote “The conflict that ended, for now, in a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel seemed like the latest episode in a periodic showdown. But there

was a second, strategic agenda unfolding, according to American and Israeli officials: The exchange was something of a practice run for any future armed confrontation with Iran, featuring improved rockets that can reach Jerusalem and new antimissile systems to counter them.”

Israel learned a lot on the capabilities of the Iron Dome system in combat operations. The market has to be strong with South Korea first in line to reduce the North Korean rocket and artillery threat to Seoul.

The threat of a ground attack by 75,000 Israel troops is still evident and most observers think it can be used if Hamas tries to break the cease fire.

Hamas won nothing but a reprieve to rearm and rebuild its destroyed buildings and equipment.