Posted 8:16 AM by steve

If history offers any guide to the future, Israel's claim that it is in a war to 'the bitter end' with Hamas will turn out to be widely off the mark...

Make no mistake, Israel has the military ability to destroy Hamas, to kill its leaders, to deny them their sanctuaries and to punish those who have supported Hamas.

But Israel won't... and for the same reason its actions in the past haven't measured up to its aggressive rhetoric: the Israelis care more about what other countries and the UN think of them than they care about keeping themselves safe from terrorist attack.

Yes, it's pretty predictable that the rest of the world doesn't notice (or care about) Hamas attacks against Israel, that they moan about the lack of Israeli 'proportionality'.

But it is also predictable that NOTHING Israel does is going to meet with approval from the likes of the UN and the rest of the 'international community'. The Israelis could pack themselves up and leave Israel to the Palestinians and the world would complain that the Israelis didn't do so fast enough... or that they didn't leave enough behind for the Palestinians... or whatever.

Given this, it amazes me that Israel ever bothers listening, that they just don't go ahead and do what is necessary to rid themselves of the terrorist threat. I don't know what they're thinking, it's not as if the likes of Germany and France and the other countries who profess to care so much about the Palestinians are going to actually do anything that hurts Israel. Do the Israelis think France will send its troops to Gaza in support of Hamas?

While there's much about the Russians I don't like, one thing I admire is their willingness to ignore world opinion when it comes to dealing with terrorists. There's no worrying about proportionality, no worrying about making surgical strikes that minimize collateral damage, no worrying about what the likes of any other country is going to think of them and their efforts. For the Russians, it is pretty simple: see terrorists, kill terrorists. And consequently, the Russians don't usually have a lot to worry about from terrorism.

That is a lesson the Israelis - and the United States - ought to be paying attention to. Unfortunately, they won't. The Israelis will continue their attack on Hamas targets, pressure (i.e., criticism from anti-Israel countries) will continue to build and the weak-knees in Israel and the United States will buckle and demand an end to the Israeli offensive... long before Hamas is eradicated. It's the script that has been followed over the past twenty years... and there's no reason to think that either the Israelis or Bush Administration is calling for a rewrite.