Did Hamas Start the War?

What if? I’m thinking the unthinkable but why not? So, here goes.

We know or we believe we know that Israel didn’t see the Hamas attack coming until after it came. We know or at least we believe we know that the Hamas terrorists went after school kids, shot them, mutilated them, did terrible things to every Jew they could find. We know or at least we know that this was the worst slaughter of Jews in any place or at any time since the Holocaust happened before and during World War II.

So, that’s been the Fake News storyline all week long. And I’d be willing to go along with it except for one little thing. Namely, that I have yet to see any proof to back up any of those statements which are the current and unquestioned narrative on virtually every TV and cable network since the whole Near East mess began to occur.

And worse, this narrative is being used to explain and justify what appears to be an attempt by Israel to wipe Hamas off the face of the Earth, or at least reduce their legally occupied physical location to rubble and dust.

That’s right. If the Fake News would like you to believe that we are witnessing a dispute between a legally constituted government (Israel) versus a bunch of terrorist thugs (Hamas), then you will be believing an analysis of the current Near East conflict which is simply not true.

Hamas has been recognized by the entire international community, including Israel, as the official stewards of what goes on in Gaza since 2006. Its leadership is publicly identified and known, its military force also happens to be a public agency responsible for day-to-day public safety in Gaza and is not just a bunch of tunnel rats sneaking around.

Israel has never accepted the idea that Hamas is a political entity which has been operating publicly and openly for more than thirty years. The standard Israeli description of Hamas is that it is a terrorist organization with a strong, religious belief which includes opposition to the idea of a Jewish state.

Now the fact that if we simply substitute the word ‘Arab’ for the word ‘Jew’ this description exactly describes the mentality of most of the Jewish settlers on the West Bank– oh well, oh well. Let’s not get bogged down in a bunch of rhetorical niceties, okay?

Talking about the West Bank, or at least the Jewish enclaves on the West Bank, this happens to be the only place where Jews live in Israel which did not witness any of the anti-government demonstrations and strikes which broke out after the Netanyahu coalition passed a law effectively shielding itself from being investigated for corruption and graft.

Want to get everyone’s minds off a domestic political problem? No better way than to mobilize the country to fight a war. And in Israel, a country where every Jewish citizen (except the ultra-Orthodox) is in one way or another committed to military or para-military service for their entire lives, make it a war against Hamas.

Here’s the proof that Hamas is currently engaged in a campaign of genocide against the Jews. Now click here to see what happened to these four Palestinian children when an Israeli gunboat opened fire off the coast of Gaza in 2014.

But the latter photo wasn’t an act of genocide, right? It was just an unfortunate mistake.

I’ll repeat something I said last week: Ever hear of a little West Bank village named Turmus Ayya? This past June, more than 400 Jewish West Bank settlers stormed this Palestinian village, killed a resident, set homes and cars on fire and wrecked businesses.

The Israeli government’s response? They issued permits to build 1,000 new homes on the West Bank.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m no self-hating Jew who wants Hamas to finish off what Hitler first started ninety years ago. But Jews in Germany didn’t routinely assault non-Jewish Germans the way that Jews in the West Bank have assaulted Palestinians and oh, by the way, occupy Palestinian land.

So what if Israel not only knew that last week’s Hamas attack was being planned? What if Israel figured that bombing a rock concert and invading a couple of Jewish settlement would be a small price to pay in return for finally going into Gaza City and wiping the Hamas out?

What if?