Hamas is not a Terrorist Organization - It is a Government of Terror

In accordance with comments by General (res.) Giora Eiland, it may be important to point out that Hamas constitutes the governing body, albeit a terror government, in Gaza. Israel should fully recognize this fact. That implies what is instrumentally obvious, that Hamas carries full responsability for governing, for administration, and for the welfare of its population.

As a state-entity, the governing body, Hamas, is free to make its choices, including channeling its resources to warfare rather than caring for its population. Hamas cannot have a Prime Minister and at the same time act as a terrorist ‘NGO’. It has constituted a terrorist state, which carries the entire responsibility for this war, and should be tried for its crimes of war.

The indiscriminate firing of rockets at a civilian population, the building of 32-64 elaborate and advanced attack tunnels, exploiting hospitals as command centers, using mosques, private homes, schools and hospitals, including locations provided by the UN, to store weapons, fire rockets, and as shafts for attack tunnels, is under full responsibility of the Gaza government.

No doubt, the civilian Palestinian population in Gaza suffers and pays a horrendous human price, which has to be accounted for. Many have become temporary refugees – a term, strangely, not applied to the 85% in some Israeli population centers near the border who have, as well, been forced to leave their homes.

There is one addressee – the Gaza government that initiated this war, that has fired thousands of rockets at civilians, that prepared for attacks (at the coming Jewish New Year) that might have cost the lives of hundreds of civilians or more.

The potential of killed by the 2,500 rockets or more is enormous. While principally the Gaza government should pay compensation, the world would be better served if the Gaza government is handed over to the Palestinian authority, if Gaza’s demilitarization be ensured by international forces, if the UN, rather than be complacent in crimes of war, will oversee the implementation of a Marshal plan for the reconstruction of Gaza.

Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has condemned Israel for not supplying Hamas with the Iron Dome defense. She should condemn the Hamas for its intent and efforts at implementing the destruction of Israel. If the Gaza government would lay down arms, fire no rockets, there would be no need for an Iron Dome.

Imagine

… Imagine the Prime Minister of Israel declaring, “We are tired of war. We shall withdraw from occupied territory – as was declared by Barak at Camp David and Taba in 2000 and by Olmert in 2006 – but we shall take it a step further - we shall show our sincerity and our trust, so we have decided to release all officers from duty, no more call up of reservists. Compulsory conscription shall be replaced by community service. Investments will, finally, be diverted to education and care for the needy. We shall lay down our arms,” as for instance Norwegian philosopher Jostein Gaarder has told us to do.

Just imagine… and then a messianic era shall perhaps prevail, because the Muslim nations shall follow suit… Syria and Iran and Hezbollah and Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran and ISIS will lay down their weapons and the flowers that were gone shall reappear…

… or will jubilant Hezbollah and Hamas and Islamic Jihad pour into Israel to carry out their plans of ethnic cleansing, killing and sociocide…?

Nasrallah: Israel is a “cancerous body … [which] must be uprooted,” ... “Jews invented the legend of the Nazi atrocities.”

The Jews of yesterday are the evil fathers of the Jews of today, who are evil offspring ... the scum of the human race ‘whom Allah cursed and turned into apes and pigs...’ These are the Jews, an ongoing continuum of deceit, obstinacy, licentiousness, evil, and corruption… (The Imam of the Al-Haraam mosque in Mecca; the same words of incitement are repeated daily in Gaza, Ramallah and innumerable mosques elsewhere.)

 From Articles 15-16 of the PLO charter:

The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national duty and it attempts to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine.  

The liberation of Palestine, from a spiritual point of view, will provide the Holy Land with an atmosphere of safety and tranquility, which in turn will safeguard the country's religious sanctuaries and guarantee freedom of worship and of visit to all, without discrimination of race, color, language, or religion.  

For the sake of clarity: A tranquil Paradise will prevail when the country has been cleansed of the Jews.

Disproportionate Force

An excerpt from the novella Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return

In September 1938 Chamberlain signed the pact with Hitler. To bolster the conviction that Europe would be saved by the appeasement agreement, French PM Daladier hailed Goering as “a man one can do politics with.” Why not a nice dinner, as well, and perhaps un cigar, monsieur? October 1, 1938, The Times praised the “Declaration of Peace in Munich,” concluding that the Munich conference “has not only banished the danger of war over the future of Czechoslovakia,” but it “has speeded up a new and a better era in European relationships.” Thank God for The Grace of Times! Upon his return, proud and popular Chamberlain waved the paper he signed with Hitler and declared he had brought “peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.”

And Professor Shimeoni, for one, would have made his way to Heston Airport and applauded him upon his return, because he is a man of hope and peace.

Thus, he told himself, “I cannot blame the passively collaborating German, and can only admire and feel a deep love for those who dared to see and those that dared to act.” Particularly he thought of Wickard von Bredow, as the example of exceptional heroism: As County Officer (Landrat), he received the order, November 9, 1938, to burn down the synagogue in the East Prussian town of Shirwindt, just like all the synagogues in Germany that were to be destroyed during the next few hours. Von Bredow put on his German Army uniform, said goodbye to his wife, and, as Martin Gilbert reports, declared: “I am going to the synagogue to prevent one of the greatest crimes in my district.” He knew he risked his life and that he could be sent to a concentration camp, but added, “I have to do this.”

When the SA, SS and Party members arrived to set the synagogue on fire, he stood in front of the synagogue, loaded his revolver in front of the group, showing them that they could only get into the building over the dead body of the Landrat. The synagogue in Shirwindt was the only one in the district not destroyed.

Eli Shimeoni wondered, “Would I have dared to trespass the prohibitions, would I have dared to buy from a Jewish store? I hope so, but the honesty that fears evoke, makes me wonder. If I would have been a 1938 German, may I not have looked the other way, avoiding the shame and the guilt gazing back at me in the store owner’s eyes of shattered glass.”

More than 22,000 German civilians were killed in the allied bombings of Dresden in February 1945.

Could their lives have been spared (as well as millions of others), if Europe would have applied 'disproportionate' force in 1938, rather than futile appeasement of evil?

Hamas filmmakers present “The Liberation of Tel Aviv and Palestine”

A new video clip, gaining popularity in the West Bank and Gaza, depicts the take-over of Tel Aviv, renamed Tel-Arabiya, and the conquest of Israel. The High Court of Justice and the Bank of Israel buildings in Jerusalem are burned down.
After Israel is successfully attacked and "liberated," Palestinians are shown walking along the Tel Aviv promenade and on its streets. The height of the film is when the channel 2 TV studio has been taken over, its Israeli broadcaster replaced by a Palestinian, ready to declare the “liberation of Tel Aviv and Palestine.”

I doubt that the Palestinian filmmakers read my recent novella Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return, which includes captions like,

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of demonstrators arrived in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It turned out that many policemen had simply remained at home, exhausted from the events of the last few weeks. Tel Aviv’s central Rabin Square and the surrounding streets filled up with demonstrators and banners, “Palestine for the Palestinians,” “One Palestine,” “Free Palestine.” Young boys climbed every pole and every pillar, raising the Palestinian flag. Soon the crowd started chanting “Tel Aviv, Tel Arab, Tel Aviv, Hill of Falastin.” (p. 82)

A recent article by prominent Professor Shlomo Avineri depicts a similar, fictitious scenario, in which the Jewish character of the country is progressively erased. The account, which, as Avineri says, will not happen, begins and ends as follows,

A radical Jewish leftist who supported the steps that led to the legislation turned to a head of an Arab organization and asked: "We did what you wanted, and you still aren't satisfied. What should we call the country so you'll really feel equal?" With a broad smile the head of the Arab association replied: "What's the problem? The real name was and always will be: Falastin."
(Shlomo Avineri: Biladi, Biladi – What's in a Name? (http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/biladi-biladi-what-s-in-a-name-1.312848)

The Hamas film, Avineri’s article and my novella all deal with the threat to Israel’s existence. The UN partition plan in 1947 divided the land into two states, Arab Palestine and Jewish Israel. Tragically, the Palestinians still reject the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Likewise, the idea of two states for two peoples is impaired by the settlements beyond the security fence, comprising a majority of settlements but a minority of settlers.

A major purpose of mine has been to imagine a worse case scenario, which will not happen, but which can easily be imagined, and in the lack of constructive imagination and determined policies, creates fear and anxiety, on the one hand, fantasies and delusions, on the other. Therefore, my novella ends optimistically (for those who care about Israel's existence), since its survival relies on human traits and capabilities beyond either the fear or the wish for its extinction.

Review of Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return, by Erel Shalit (posted on Amazon)

Slender, Succinct, Superb, February 3, 2010
By Edith Sobel (Fort Lee, New Jersey)

This slim but incisive novella is a philosophical but completely comprehensible take on contemporary Israel. From a "litany of lamentations" drawn from the current generation which appears to be the antithesis of their idealistic founding fathers, the thoughtful narrator Eli Shimeoni (about to give a lecture in New York) recounts his overriding despair - but eventually concludes with hope.
Elegantly and thoughtfully mourning today's saga of Israeli disillusion without hope, bitter alienation, and collapse of Zionist ideals, Shimeoni indicts the present movement out of the country for profit and the concomitant surrender of "soul."
But relying on the consistency of past Jewish history and the "triumphalism of hope" the reader reluctantly puts the book down - and smiles!

Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return is on sale now for $14.95, and Enemy, Cripple, Beggar is on sale now for $17.95 or $30.00 for the pair when ordered directly from the Fisher King Press. You can also order The Hero and His Shadow: Psychopolitcal Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel directly from Fisher King Press.

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