Five bombs were placed on Israeli buses. Hamas is playing to win. Israel is playing not to lose. They are not the same thing.
One always has to be very careful about a) getting his information from the news and not from first-hand sources and b) commenting on a developing story. I remember the depressing reports after a typical suicide bombing during the second intifada. 10 wounded. Next, 2 critically wounded, 20 injured. Finally after a few hours, 5 dead and 35 wounded.
At 9 pm Thursday night three Israeli buses exploded south of Tel Aviv. Two more bombs were discovered on different buses. The events led to a frantic search on every bus, light rail, and heavy train in the country. “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” Hamas took responsibility for the intended attack. Apparently, the bombs went off because the timers were set for 9 pm and not 9 am, when the buses would have been loaded with passengers.
One of the biggest problems we have in the West is our inability to completely turn off our brains and try to think as others from different cultures or backgrounds think. I would imagine that most of the men who come to this website would be horrified at the thought of beating their wives. Yet, in Islam, women are considered chattel and beating one’s wife is accepted to the point that an imam in Italy wrote a treatise on how to hit one’s wife without leaving any external marks for the authorities to see.
So, if we can turn off our minds and try to think like Hamas, we might be better equipped to fight them and their ilk. Hamas’ only interest is in killing every Jew it can and destroying the state of Israel. There is zero interest in building a successful state or advancing the well-being or dreams of the Palestinian people. One could see the debased and sub-Nazi behavior at the transfer of the four dead Israelis, including mother Bibas (and it turns out it was not she; they sent someone else’s body) and her two little children. The latter were violently murdered at ages 10 months and 4 years old. Starting from the demented kidnapping of a young mother and her children, Hamas and its partners in destruction were involved in the most debased of activities. The return of the murdered Israelis and the fake mother Bibas included music, singing children, overall happiness and, critically, threats to conquer every city in Israel. Hamas must watch the Terminator movies, as its only interest is in killing Jews and destroying the state of Israel. Oh, I said that, but that’s all they’ve got. Islam writ large is beginning to finally realize that it has a Hamas problem. Big muftis condemned the transfer activities as “blasphemous”; apparently all that went before that was OK. Islam cannot get its Hamas wing under control. They told them to hate and kill the "Yehud" and they have no way of deprogramming them now.
The attempted bus bombings may have been initiated by people who were released of late in the Kafkaesque ceasefire. Hamas does not see the present period as one of respite. That one does not hear about terror attacks in Israel in no way means that the terrorists aren’t planning and trying to kill. Many plans are scuttled early and at times terrorists are caught on their way to an attack. If one were to put his brain back, with the insights gleaned, he would have to conclude that it’s either us or them. Hamas is playing for keeps, as evidenced by its death party and its attempted mass murder of Israelis. Israel is playing to stay in the game. They provide the would-be-killers of Jews food, electricity, water, and manpower with returned terrorists. Israel thinks that it is swatting flies; instead, it is fighting a serious cancer that spreads far beyond Hamas proper to all aspects of Palestinian society and its supporters in the West. One does not negotiate with cancer. One does not leave a few cells around for old-times sake. One is ruthless until he can ring the cancer ward bell that says that he is disease-free. Did the bombs have to go off when there were 30 people on each bus before the Israeli government would wipe Hamas out without safety zones and SMS warnings to leave buildings? Send the messages after the building has been demolished.
Israel is not serious in its post-October 7th fight against Hamas. Sure, soldiers have fought bravely and a lot of damage has been done to Hamas and its civilian partners. But just as body counts meant nothing to the North Vietnamese, and destroyed villages did not give victory over the Taliban, so too Israel’s efforts fall short when one thinks like Hamas and not like Israel. Cut off the food, water, and electricity. What happens after that is not your problem. Get to the point that the residents will beg for mercy. That’s a good place to start. Do that, and we can talk about what comes next, including the end of the nonsense of a two-state solution. Israel should declare sovereignty over the West Bank and Gaza and then arrange the Palestinians so that they will live in restricted areas and present no danger to the Israeli population. Call it a reservation, call it whatever you want. The Palestinians have forfeited their right to be among civilized people. They need to be separated and kept to themselves. Israel must act as if its very existence is at stake, because it is.
Because Israel has given itself a leisurely 16 months to fight Hamas, the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish activities in the West have had plenty of time to metastasize on campus and on the streets of large Western cities. Hamas and all those who think like it need to be neutralized so as to no longer present a threat to people who get on buses to go to work or shopping. Israel needs to take the threat more seriously and finally, yes, put Hamas in the past tense.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member