By Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Contributor for In Homeland Security
After three Israeli teens were murdered by suspected Palestinian terrorists affiliated with Hamas, Israel unleashed large raids and missile strikes to find suspects and cripple Hamas supply lines and weapons caches.
The latest attack involves an admitted effort by Hamas to target Israel’s nuclear reactor this Wednesday. Hamas fired three M-75 rockets towards Dimona, Israel. The Iron Dome air defense system struck one rocket down and two landed in open desert.
Between Monday and Wednesday, Israeli officials said that Hamas fired 200 rockets and the Iron Dome intercepted 53 of them. [They have an estimated 10,000 by some accounts].
“Hamas will pay a heavy price for firing at Israel’s citizens,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Similar condemning language is heard from Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, who claims that this war is forced upon them. They never did take responsibility for the kidnap and murder of the three teens but Israel arrested two suspects in connection and Hamas has continued targeting of civilian Israelis after the peace talks failed and the recent raids.
“The battle against Hamas will become wider in coming days. It won’t be a short campaign, and we should be patient,” Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon warned.
Thus the battles become wars and the civilians mobilize. The problem grows worse with civilians on both sides involved in growing aggression. Israelis have now been charged for retaliatory hate-crime murder involving Palestinian adolescents.
Danny Yatom, former head of Mossad said that: “Hamas still has surprises left in its arsenal, including long-range rockets. Despite pretending we weren’t, we were surprised by yesterday’s fire.”
Mr. Yatom refers to an indigenous variant, similar to the Syrian M-302 rockets that some estimate are held by Hamas numbering in the hundreds. Longer range rockets are now in use.
In 2012, Israel called up 75,000 reservists when a Gaza rocket hit near Jerusalem. Israel pounded them with strikes of 600 targets. Rallied the attention of Egypt under Morsi and condemnation from the world. In any case, that conflict died down.
If Hamas is really looking to target the nuclear reactor in Dimona beyond threatening to do so, or most importantly, having objective and intention at more serious attempts to escalate the conflict, Israel’s integrity and existence is at least another red-line. So far, Netanyahu is playing semi-cautiously in comparison to 2012; striking 400 Hamas targets and calling up 40,000 reservists.
A few questions should come to mind during this conflict:
Where does any moral authority come from?
Is Hamas responsible for its most extreme operatives that might have kidnapped and murdered the Israeli teens or did it carry out the attack in a more organized and top-down fashion?
Is Hamas now striking back harder so the Israeli security forces stand down? In other words, is Hamas simply lashing out in a last resort of defense- which could escalate the conflict to unprecedented desperate means?
Is there a difference between an defensive or offensive war? Yes. If Hamas is playing a defensive war, it would likely stop if Israel scaled back. This does not mean it would completely stop but that the intensity of attacks would be expected to die down. Israel might consider less visible approaches during such time.
On the other hand, if Hamas is playing an offensive role, or there is no difference in their minds, then no action that Israel could take would slow down or deescalate the crisis. Moreover, there does not immediately appear to be anything that could stop Hamas other than these.
Finally, will such a battle escalate into all-out-war? This might already be the case. There is not much land in the state of Israel for such a massive internal unrest.
Will other players like ISIL be attracted to the stench of warfare and vulnerability there should the conflict endure and escalate? Containing and isolating this conflict from the regional instability will not be easy.
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