Israel should not agree to a cease-fire. It should quit messing around, quit deluding itself that it can stop Hamas from firing rockets and launching terrorist attacks against Israelis with rockets of its own, invade, wipe out Hamas and re-occupy Gaza.
Agreeing to a cease-fire will not make Israelis safer, will not stop Hamas from firing rockets and launching terrorist attacks against Israel and will not do anything to enhance Israel’s short or long-term national security either. A cease-fire will keep the rockets and terrorist attacks coming and will harm Israel’s national security because it will give Hamas time to re-arm and will be interpreted by Hamas and its fellow Arab/Islamic haters and murderers as a sign of weakness, weakness being deadly and suicidal in the Middle East. It will enable and encourage Hamas to keep on trying to destroy Israel and terrorize and murder as many Israelis as it can along the way, which is the object of the exercise, the reason for its existence.
Cease-fires have not worked in Israel’s favour in the past and a cease-fire will not work now either. It basically won’t be worth the paper it is printed on because Hamas won’t abide by the agreement. There might be a very brief respite but it won’t be long at all before Hamas starts firing rockets and launching terrorist attacks on Israel again and Israel finds itself right back to where it was when the current round of hostilities began.
Hamas won’t change because it cannot change. Its charter and its religion commit it to the total destruction of Israel. Changing would mean that it must reject its charter and reject Islam and its requirements and demands to fight and kill Jews and by extension Israelis and Israel and those things it simply cannot and will not do.
It is not just that Hamas is consumed by anti-Semitism and an anti-Israel, anti-Israeli animus, consumed by hatred and disgust for Jews, for Israel and for Israelis. It is that Islam requires and demands that Hamas act on those beliefs and the only way to do that is to destroy Israel and kill as many Jews as it can in the process. That is what the charter is based on and that is why Hamas exists to begin with. Hamas isn’t going to change because it is acting in the name of Islam and Islam doesn’t permit change, which means that it is going to keep on doing what Islam demands and requires of it... which means that the rocket and terrorist attacks against Israel will continue, cease-fire or no cease-fire.
Which is why of course Israel shouldn’t agree to one.
Which is why of course that Israel should invade Gaza, root out and excise Hamas and occupy the territory once again.
Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza seven years ago has brought Israelis nothing but suffering, bloodshed, destruction and death at the hands of Hamas, at the hands of Islam. The country has paid an enormous price in blood and treasure because it left Gaza and it will continue to pay an enormous price in blood and treasure until it invades, excises the cancer that is Hamas and re-occupies the territory to keep it from returning. That is a fact of life which no cease-fire agreement will change.
And if Hamas doesn’t like it, if Islamists don’t like it, too bad. Its their own fault in the end anyway.
Jerry Philipson
Comox, British Columbia, Canada
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.
