Iran's shadow in Gaza

A brilliant piece by Walid Phares at Counterterrorism blog.

A key point that sums up the failure of the peace process is made succintly;

"By 2005 Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip and the Palestinian Authority was closer to statehood than ever. But Hamas, which won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006 thanks to massive Iranian support and its armed omnipresence, refused to follow the course of the Camp David process. According to its ideologues and leaders, and unlike Arafat and Abbas, the radical group “cannot” recognize the existence of the state of Israel"

This says it all really. Isreal basically handed the PA a golden opportunity for them to achieve a Palestinian state internationally recognised but they chose instead to use the territory as a more convenient launch pad for sending indiscriminate missiles into Isreal in line with their Iranian dictated objectives.

So whilst they maintain this goal there is no point negotiating with them as there is no common ground. At the same time they must be shown that their actions have consequences, this is exactly what the IDF are showing them right now. It's simple.

Iran's involvement is a different matter/discussion altogether and is way more frightening.

As Walid says, "Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, most of the Gulf States are nervous about Iran’s influence in Gaza". And rightly so. If Hamas aren't dealt a swift blow in the current engagement they will be emboldened and that can only mean a further escalation in violence towards Israel. An Israel subdued by international pressure to accept the incoming violence from Gaza and an emboldened Hamas backed by Iran is a deadly scenario. If we allow this to happen we are sealing Israels fate whilst rubber stamping Islamist aggression against us all.

What the world is conveniently forgetting however is the one weapon that Israel has that Iran doesn't (yet). Cutting Israel adrift citing moral superiority may leave Israel with no choice but in a dying bid for existence to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against Iran. If Iran disappears, so do Hamas. An extreme option but if it's a choice between fight or die, you've already seen which option is favoured.