A Bully in the Sandbox

In January 2006, the terrorist group Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian elections over the Fatah. They did this in part by hiding the fact that one of their main goals is to wipe Israel off the map. As a result of that election, Israel (along with the United States, the European Union, several Western states, and the Arab states) suspended the foreign aid upon which Palestine depends. Aid would not be restored until Hamas met the demands of (1) recognizing Israel, (2) accepting agreements made by the defeated Fatah regime, and (3) denouncing violence. Yeah, that soooo didn’t happen.

Despite the sanctions, Hamas leaders were able to smuggle enough into the Palestinian territories to maintain basic services. Obviously, or they all would have starved to death. Or become refugees. They certainly wouldn’t have been able to stay there unless they were able to get some sustenance.

In December 2006, bullish Hamas decided that they would do a better job controlling Gaza instead of the Palestinian police. By June 2007, Hamas had accomplished its goal through several rounds of brutal attacks, culminating in a four day long ambushe that gained them control of the Fatah outposts. Hamas was then in complete control of the Gaza Strip, a tiny piece of land tucked between Egypt and Israel.

Ever since then, Hamas has been launching attacks on Israel. Hamas is sitting in their corner of the sandbox, pissed off that Israel is playing right next to them in the sand that they believe should be theirs. In Hamas’ opinion, Israel needs to be kicked out of the sandbox and wiped off the map. As any mean but relatively weak bully would do, they have been throwing fistfuls of sand at Israel in the form of bombs aimed at civilian cities in Israel along the Gaza/Israeli border.

I’m not sure of the thinking on this one… were they just trying to annoy Israel out of the sandbox? Or did they want Israel to believe the small (yet still devastating to those involved) attacks were warnings? A year and a half is an awful long time for a warning of bigger attacks to come, if you ask me. Under either circumstance, last Saturday Israel finally became fed up with the sand throwing. Israel stood up, walked over to the bully Hamas, and punched him square in the nose. It wasn’t unprovoked, or even issued without warning. The day before, Israel warned Hamas that he had better knock it off, or he’d get punched in the nose.

So now the world is watching this battle in the sandbox between a bully and someone that actually stood up for themselves and said, “Stop it. I have as much a right to be here you. You will not destroy me, even though you attempt to. I will no longer tolerate your sand throwing.”

Yet for some reason, almost every msm news story I’ve encountered has somehow managed to paint Israel as the bully. They’ve conveniently managed to overlook the fact that Hamas wants Israel destroyed. Oh yes, of course, you should always feed the hand that bites you. You should always give aid and refuge to people who want nothing more in the world than to see you and your countrymen dead. *insert eye roll here*

I’m content to let Israel kick the terrorist Hamas out of the sandbox. I hope I get to see it happen.

Speaking of politics…. How has President Elect Obama responded to this crisis? Well, he went golfing today on his fancy-shmancy Hawaiian vacation. Interesting… I thought you couldn’t vote “present” as President, but apparently you can from the Office of the President-Elect.