Israel doesn't play. Despite certain condemnation at the UN and the usual calls for "restraint," the Israelis understand what's happening when Hamas refuses a perfectly reasonable cease fire offer and fires 100 rockets into Israel as soon as a brief cooling off period expires. It means that a terrorist group - which, remember, does not repesent any sort of established nation - has decided to unleash wholesale murder on the Israeli people.
There is only one way to respond to that, and Benjamin Netanyahu began that operation yesterday. Now, he's ordering the Israeli Defense Forces to be ready to expand the operation:
Israeli aircraft have struck more than 2,000 targets in Gaza. More than 260 Palestinians have been killed in the air campaign. An Israeli civilian was killed earlier this week.
Israel said it launched an open-ended assault on several fronts, with the primary aim being to destroy underground tunnels into Israel built by Hamas that could be used to carry out attacks. The army said Thursday that the objective was to strike a "significant blow to Hamas' terror infrastructure."
The high-stakes move followed Israel's growing exasperation over unrelenting rocket fire and came hours after the collapse of Egyptian-led efforts to broker a cease-fire. It also followed a failed attempt by 13 militants to infiltrate Israel earlier Thursday through a tunnel under the Gaza-Israel border, only to be stopped by an Israeli strike at the mouth of the tunnel.
Israel had called up 48,000 reserve soldiers, and later Thursday the Cabinet authorized the military to call up 18,000 more, the military said.
Let's remember: Israel never picks a fight with anyone. Israel's only strategic goal is to live in peace in its territory. The only reason Israel occupied Gaza in the first place was that it captured the territory following an attack on Israel in 1967 by Egypt - which is ironic because it was Egypt's current president who tried to broker the cease fire that Hamas predictably walked away from last week.
When Israel agreed in 1994 to grant self-governance rights to Gaza, that did not include the right to launch rockets into Israel at will.
But this cycle repeats itself endlessly. Terror groups launch assaults on Israel. Israel responds with aggressive measures to defend itself. People around the world who insist on assigning moral equivalence to both sides in the conflict get their knickers in a twist over some tactic the Israelis use, and everyone loses sight of the fact that there never would have been a conflict in the first place if those surrounding Israel would simply accept its existence and let Israel live in peace.
And of course, the UN's constant condemnations of Israel are the most ironic thing of all, because it was the UN in 1948 that chose to form the borders that make up modern-day Israel. The Palestinians who falsely claim that land was stolen from them and demand a "right of return" should aim their complaints at the UN, not that it would make any difference today.
But the entire case against Israel is bogus anyway. Israel is a peaceful nation under seige that is not afraid to do what's necessary to defend itself, and that upsets people who can't see the truth about what's happening there.
By the way, where was the statement from the White House in support of our ally? There was a tweet from the State Department last evening. Let's have a look at it, shall we?
