Hamas must understand where this is heading:
Anger boiled over in Sderot on Saturday night as residents took to the streets, demanding that the government take stronger steps against the rocket fire from Gaza following a Kassam strike that shattered one local family’s Shabbat.
Two brothers from Sderot, aged eight and 19, were seriously wounded and two other members of their family were also hospitalized when a rocket fired from northern Gaza – one of almost four dozen launched this weekend – struck two meters from where the boys were standing. — Jerusalem Post
It is becoming politically impossible for the Israeli government to not take effective steps to stop this. As I wrote yesterday, such action will have to be to totally crush Hamas. If the decision hasn’t been taken already, sooner or later it will be.
Hamas knows this. So the fact that they are continuing, even stepping up, the provocations means that they must want to engage in full-scale warfare as soon as possible.
I’m sure that they have what they believe to be surprises up their sleeve. The IDF should have contingency plans for everything imaginable, including the participation of Hezbollah or even intervention by Syria.
In my assessment, the enemy is seriously underestimating the IDF. Their thinking is based on the 2006 war but there is no doubt in my mind that the IDF has learned its lessons. There is also a real Minister of Defense this time.
I don’t think this will be easy, not for the IDF, not for Israeli or Palestinian civilians. But I know what the outcome will be.
Like everyone with family or friends in Israel (or among the Palestinians, I’m sure) I feel a degree of anxiety. It’s unfortunate that there’s no alternative.
Possibly afterwards the Palestinians will develop a leadership that understands that they will not, ever, succeed in their goal to destroy Israel. Maybe after a lot of blood flows, they will finally understand that it’s more important for them to help themselves than to hurt Jews. Maybe.
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