The Gaza Illusion

I’ve been thinking long and hard of why Hamas decided to pick a fight with Israel at this particular time. What’s in it for Hamas? The West has fallen for all the clichés: Hamas wants to end the “occupation”. But there is no occupation. There hasn’t been a single Israeli soldier or settler in Gaza since the evacuation of Gush Katif in 2005. Maybe Hamas is fighting to end the “embargo”. Really? They’ve been shooting thousands of rockets at Israel. How did these rockets get into Gaza if the “embargo” is so air-tight? How did they build 3 kilometer long concrete terror tunnels under the border with Israel, if they have no building materials?

So why is Hamas attacking? In boxing, you lead with the left and then you strike with the right. Gaza is a distraction. You want to get to the truth? Follow the money, or more precisely – the rockets. Who supplied Hamas with rockets? Last week, for the first time, Iran openly admitted to having done it.

Former Head of Israeli Military Intelligence Amos Yadlin was on Israel Army Radio. He listed the threats to Israel’s existence in the following order: Iran and its nuclear weapons program, Syria which has already killed 170 thousand of their own people (some of them with chemical weapons), Hezbollah which has 120 thousand missiles aimed at Israel and, in fourth position, Hamas. In other words, Hamas is the distraction, not the main threat.

Only a few months ago, the economic sanctions against Iran were working. The regime was on its knees and its nuclear program was being challenged internally. Then the Obama administration loosened the noose and initiated so called “negotiations”, whose purpose seems to be to make sure that Jihadist Iran uses its nuclear program for “peaceful purposes”. Basically, after assuring Israel that Iran will never get a nuclear bomb, Obama is going to make sure that he leaves office with a nuclearized Iran. The world is heading towards a post-apocalyptic sci-fi reality. The West is betting the continued existence of this planet on the rationality of players such as the mullahs of Iran. But nobody’s talking about that. Why? Because Iran has created a distraction for the world. It’s called Gaza.

In capitals around the planet liberals, neo-Nazis, Muslim fundamentalists and other assorted strange bedfellows are decrying the fact that Israel is defending itself. In the present calls for a “humanitarian” ceasefire, the American administration has involved Islamic Turkey and Hamas’ sponsor, Qatar. Incredibly, president Obama and secretary of state Kerry have managed to simultaneously shock and alienate Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. That’s no small feat. All their maneuverings have accomplished one thing, however: they have distracted the world from Iran and its sinister allies in Syria and Lebanon. As for Hamas, the greatest achievement of their most recent aggression has been to get Israel to take its eye off Iran.

So what’s in it for Gaza? Nothing. What’s in it for Hamas? Continued sponsorship from Iran. What’s in it for Iran? A global distraction while their centrifuges continue to spin.