Call Gaza what you will: killing fields, an endless loop of blood, pain and death, the world’s largest concentration camp. Or, as the population of Israel appears to be intent on doing, you can ignore it altogether.
The Ashkenazi Jews of Tel Aviv live in a western bubble, sipping their morning cappuccinos and fretting about their yoga teachers just one hour’s drive away from the most appalling scenes the world has witnessed since Srebrenica, or Rwanda.
But there is one thing none of them seem to understand: Hamas won’t surrender.
To think that its leaders in Gaza will take the money and run, as Fatah once did, is to reveal, after 18 months of total warfare and two months of starvation, how little Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understands his enemy.
Make no mistake, the last Israeli “offer” would have amounted to an act of surrender. It was to surrender all the hostages in exchange for 45 days of food and water, and to seek the disarmament of Hamas. ….more
