Re: Terrorist attack in Gaza, 195 dead
**Think about how evil Hamas is - escalating this conflict, KNOWING your own population would be harmed, only to be able to play the role of victims again. What an evil bunch of people...
**
Hamas's escalation strategy
by Pierre Heumann, Tel Aviv
Death and destruction reign in Gaza, but Hamas's calculations have come to fruition. The Islamists had provoked the israeli government for weeks with attacks on civilian targets. Now they can play the role of the victim - and increase their standing in the arab world.
Hamas must have known: Israel would not tolerate the continuous rocket attacks endlessly. Again and again militants fired on israeli towns in recent days. But the islamists considered the horrible pictures shown on TV which are shown across the world after Israel's attacks on Gaza in their calculations. They fully expected the suffering of innocents and the victims when they denied to extend the cease fire with Israel.
A perfidious strategy. The internationally isolated Hamas hopes - with the help of the current escalation of violence - to be taken as a serious negotiating party in the West. It is counting on the fact that the internation community will intervene and negotiate with Hamas.
On Friday, Hamas strategists still felt themselves safe, because Jerusalem was sending out calming signals. Israel mimed "business as usual". The government even allowed 80 trucks with relief supplies and medications to travel to Gaza. As if the operation "Poured Lead" wasn't planned, soldiers were allowed to take their planned vacation over the weekend. Hamas's leadership did not expect an attack before the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.
But it was already decided at this time in the israeli defense ministry: The provocation of the Islamists would not be tolerated any longer. The soothing signals on Friday were a ruse, as one knows since Saturday. The concentrated attacks of the israeli air force were supposed to catch the Hamas leadership unprepared. That was successful.
The escalation was forseeable since the 19th of December. On this day, Hamas and a dozen other Palestinian groups allowed the six month old cease fire with Israel to expire - even though the cease fire was tenuous already. Almost 200 rockets and several mortars impacted on Israel since then. Civilians, not military installations were the targets of Hamas. The rockets only missed their intended targets only due to their lack of precision. But the continuous fear of the Kassam rockets made life in the south of Israel a pain. Many inhabitants fled to the North.
Hamas could have weighed the consequences of their attacks. The egyptian government, which attempted to negotitate betweem Gaza and Jerusalem, expressly warned them.
Even the threats from Israel over the past few weeknd were clear and not in need of interpretation. Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in an interview with an arabic television station, demanded that the Palestinians cease the aggression against Israel. "Stop it" - otherwise, Israel would use force against the rocket launchers and their leaders.
But that's exactly what Hamas was counting on. Otherwise, it would not have provoked Israel, which possesses and army of Nato strength. It had known that hailing down rockets on Israel would eventually lead to retaliation.
That did not keep its leadership from ordering and supporting the rocket attacks. It was ready to accept that an israeli counterattack would cause casualties among the palestinian civilians, since Hamas compounds are purposefully sited in city parts where civilians live.
The welfare of the palestinian population is not the primary goal of Hamas. It has the governmental responsibility for the 1.5 Million inhabitants of the Gaza strip. But the statesmanlike duty that is tied to this resposibility has not been exhibited by the islamists. They remain dedicated to their ideology of resistance. That is why they are considered terrorists not only in Israel, but also in Europe and the USA.
Hamas, it appears, had only one goal with their provocation, which couldn't be any more cynical: They recommend themselves as a partner for dialog. Without their assent, there will be no peace is their malicious message. More then that: The massive military blow against Hamas, whose end is not yet in sight, improves the standing of Gaza's islamists in the entire arab world.
Even palestinian president Mahmud Abbas - certainly no friend of Hamas - expressed solidarity with Gaza and its government. In Jordan, Palestinians demanded that their government nullify their peace accord with Israel. The west bank is expecting violence. That would allow Hamas's claim to power to resonate even there - which Israel, the West, and moderate arab regimes want to avoid at all costs.
they are the real terrorists 
but obviously no one sees that, everyone’s blinded by their sweet talk and suckin up