The Fast and the Furious
Don't get me wrong; I am not a hawk. I don't espouse violence, and I do not condone military action as the only way to settle disputes.
For the past several years, especially since the withdrawal of forces (and every living Jew) from Gaza, the Israeli people and her supporters have been hoping against hope that the ruling government in Gaza would focus on nation building, commerce, trade, and peaceful coexistence.
It is with a deep sense of frustration with the Palestinian leadership in both Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Arab leaders throughout the Middle East, that I support the actions of the Israeli government these past few hours and days as they attack the terrorist government in Gaza.
Hamas has squandered every opportunity to show itself capable of governing.
Almost immediately after taking control of Gaza, terror units, shielded by the Hamas, began the barrage of rockets into Israel. They didn't target military installations. They were indiscriminate.
The speed at which Hamas built its terror infrastructure in Gaza was head spinning. Ordinary rights were dismantled. Religious schools replaced whatever was there before; religious policies were enacted and enforced, brutally, upon the citizens. In a poll taken about a year after Hamas took power in Gaza (by a respected Palestinian academic), over 70% of Gazans said they wanted the Israelis back in Gaza.
The rocket fire into Israel was non-stop. Some world leaders expressed an opinion that Hamas should do something about the rockets, but nothing substantial was done. Israel made some overtures and did respond from time to time, but not in force.
Even after Gilad Shalit was taken, the Israeli response in Gaza was muted (there was a war that was waged in Lebanon against Hizbullah, but the decision was made to keep the fight on one front; Israel desparately tried diplomacy in Gaza).
Now, after several failed international attempts to help Hamas become a nation builder, to become a government, it is time for action.
The recent rocket attacks and rhetoric out of Gaza and from the Hamas leadership clearly shows the world that terrorism is the name of the game over there.
Let Israel do what it does; let Israel take on Hamas and the terrorist government in a way that will dismantle the infrastructure in Gaza that supports the terror state. Let it happen fast, let it take its course, and let us support Israel to once again tell the world that terrorism will not defeat her.