Israel made a big mistake by signing a cease-fire agreement with Hamas and not sending its army into Gaza to root out and remove the terrorist organization.
Israel backed down by agreeing to the cease-fire and not invading and backing down is going to cost it dearly down the road.
In the Middle East backing down is viewed as weakness and when Israel backed down by signing the cease-fire agreement and choosing not to invade it told Hamas and its Arab/Islamic brethren that it was weak, a paper tiger if you will, and unwilling to use its military might to defend the country and its people.
Showing weakness to its murderous neighbors is the worst possible thing any Israeli government can do and Israel just showed a considerable amount of weakness by backing down, signing a cease-fire agreement and not invading Gaza. All that will do is is encourage her enemies to increase the ferocity of their attacks...all that will do is enable Israel’s enemies to keep on attacking, keep on raining rockets on Israel, keep on trying to murder Israelis, keep on trying to destroy Israel and wipe it off the map while killing as many Israelis as they can until they do.
The government of Israel just made a huge mistake alright, a mistake that will lead to enormous losses of blood and treasure for Israelis, a mistake that might even lead to the demise of the country. In the Middle East you either live by the sword or die by the sword and when Israel backed down and sheathed its sword it sent a very clear message to its enemies.
Don’t think they didn’t receive it either.
Don’t think we won’t start seeing the results, soon, either.
What on earth was the government thinking? It must have known that a cease-fire agreement is meaningless, that Hamas and its Arab/Islamic brethren will start attacking again soon. Israel ostensibly had three objectives when it struck back against Hamas last week, to stop Hamas and its Arab/Islamic brethren from launching rockets into Israel, to re-establish Israel’s deterrent power and to destroy Hamas’s long range missiles. The government knew it had achieved none of them when it chose not to invade, signed the cease-fire agreement and backed down. What on earth was it thinking indeed?
More to the point now that the deed is done what can it do to redress the situation?
Here’s a suggestion.
Keep the army poised on the border and the instant a rocket is fired into Israel, invade, wipe out Hamas and re-occupy Gaza.
Now that would stop Hamas and its Arab/Islamic brethren from launching rockets into Israel, re-establish Israel’s deterrent power and destroy Hamas’s long range missiles.
Hey, maybe that’s why Israel signed the cease-fire agreement. Maybe Israel wants to use Hamas’s breaking the agreement, which won’t take very long, as an excuse to invade and occupy Gaza. Not that it needed one, but still...
Maybe Israel is setting up Hamas by agreeing to a cease-fire it knows Hamas will break so that it can invade and occupy Gaza with as little disapproval and condemnation as possible.
Israel setting up Hamas...what a delicious thought that is.
Jerry Philipson is a retired grandfather who has spent many years working in non-profit social service agencies in Canada and the United States. He holds dual Canadian and American citizenship and has been passionate about politics, civil liberties, freedom and democracy for virtually his whole life. He is particularly interested in the Middle East and America and believes that it is vital for people of good heart and good conscience to speak out against tyranny and dishonesty and to stand up and defend and protect Western values, principles and institutions.
