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Children seeking shelter from Hamas rockets. One of the images we'll remember from the war
Shimon Shiffer

Hamas had the final word in Gaza op

Analysis: Forget about demilitarizing Gaza and disarming Hamas. Things will remain unchanged – until the next round.

When politicians don't know how to summarize an incident with results that are not unequivocal, they usually say that "the final word has yet to be said." But in the case of Operation Protective Edge, one can definitely say that Hamas had the final word.

 

 

The rocket barrages launched by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, a moment before the seventh ceasefire took effect were their "last word."

 

Hamas determined the height of the flames throughout the entire operation, made an entire country lie down on the sides of roads, and mainly forced the Israeli government's representatives to travel to Cairo to negotiate with terror organizations, as equals, over an arrangement which will guarantee a ceasefire, nothing more, for an unknown period of time.

 

In Cairo, the parties will likely reach an agreement to continue the ceasefire, but forget about all the talks about demilitarizing the Strip and disarming Hamas. Things will remain unchanged – until the next round.

 

Here, the army will rush to announce that it has appointed teams to investigate the issues raised during the fighting. It's safe to assume that, like in the past, the conclusions will fail to teach us anything about what will be required in the next battle, as commissions of inquiry analyze the past but are incapable of predicting the future. I believe there will be no dismissals and the fighting methods will not be changed.

 

The same will happen in the Shin Bet, which is subject to the Prime Minister's Office. Despite the increasing number of failures being revealed in recent days in the security service's preparedness versus Gaza, I estimate that there will be no commission of inquiry into the government and prime minister's conduct.

 

In the Second Lebanon War, even before the fighters had returned home from the battlefield, then-Opposition Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu had already called for a commission of inquiry. But not now.

 

Even without a commission of inquiry, we should expect the government not to abandon the important mission of soothing the relations with Israel's Arabs and calming down the situation in the West Bank. This is nothing less than an existential mission.

 

We will remember two images from this war: The first is of children in a kindergarten in Hod Hasharon, lying down with their small hands on their heads, seeking shelter from the shrapnel of the rockets the villains launched at them. The second image is of the havoc and destruction left by the heavy bombardments of Gaza.

 

It's infuriating and ironic that these two images will have difficult consequences for us: The picture of the children will encourage our enemies to stick to the conclusion that Hamas won and that the Zionist enemy failed in protecting its population. The picture of the destruction in Gaza will serve the international community to verbally attack Israel and accuse it of committing war crimes.

 


פרסום ראשון: 08.06.14, 19:15
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