By Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist ——Bio and Archives--July 8, 2014
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“The government and the IDF have billed the operation as a long-term, staged offensive to destroy Hamas’ logistical and strategic infrastructure, to be escalated stage by stage as needed, up to a limited ground incursion, which would require additional reserve call-ups, as well targeted assassinations. This progression will be adjusted to the enemy’s response and how quickly ‘quiet is restored to the South.’ United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on both sides to exercise “maximum restraint” and avoid further civilian casualties. The rocket attacks should cease, Mr. Ban said, but he spent more space in his statement lamenting the plight of the Palestinians. He said he was “extremely concerned at the dangerous escalation of violence, which has already resulted in multiple Palestinian deaths and injuries as a result of Israeli operations against Gaza."UN Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has sunk even lower than this in the swamp of moral equivalency. "From a human rights point of view, I utterly condemn these rocket attacks,” she said, “and more especially I condemn Israel's excessive acts of retaliation." (Emphasis added) This moral equivalency position is getting very old. Hamas and its fellow jihadists remain primarily responsible for the escalation by continuing their full-scale deliberate rocket assaults against Israeli civilians despite repeated warnings to stop. Palestinian Authority President Abbas’s decision to include Hamas in the Palestine unity government makes him responsible as well for his government partner’s rocket assaults, since he claims to be the president of the entire putative unified state of Palestine that includes Hamas-governed Gaza. As if Hamas were not bad enough, ISIS (more recently calling itself the Islamic State), which is presently ravaging parts of Syria and Iraq, is reportedly infiltrating Gaza. ISIS shares Hamas’s goal of creating an Islamic caliphate but believes that Hamas is "too moderate" in its approach. As described by the Jerusalem Post last month, unlike Hamas, which is presently focused on ousting the Jewish state from what it claims to be the land belonging to the Palestinian people, “ISIS is a globalized movement that lacks deep roots in any particular society and has no nationalist project.” However, ISIS and Hamas do share the supremacist ideology of Islam and the jihadist fervor to spread Islam and sharia law by force. In the short run, at least, they will use each other, but in the long run ISIS is even more dangerous than Hamas as it looks to expand its reach from its bases in neighboring Syria and Iraq into Jordan and Egypt, encircling Israel, and beyond. While Israel must do whatever is necessary to keep Hamas under control, it must be careful not to fool itself into thinking that eliminating Hamas alone will mean eliminating an even more dangerous and ruthless jihadist threat that is growing like a cancer on its doorstep.
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Joseph A. Klein is the author of Global Deception: The UN’s Stealth Assault on America’s Freedom.