By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM — “Until the next round” is the headline in today’s Ha’aretz that describes the attempt at ceasefire between Hamas and Israel after these last days of intensive belligerence. As a result, the rockets raining on the Negev have been reduced, though not yet fully eliminated, and Israel has refrained from air attacks on targets in Gaza. But, as the headline suggests, nobody believes that that’s the end of hostilities.
In fact, those in the know are preparing for escalation. Hamas is said to have rockets that can reach Tel Aviv. If it uses them, Israel will have no choice but to mount another Gaza invasion. Though nobody in Israel wants it, the Government of Israel is duty-bound to protect its citizens, and that can only be done with massive force, even when, as in the previous Gaza war – in, fact, all wars – the result didn’t bring peace, not even much calm; at best only a temporary respite.
Part of the preparation for the next round is Israel’s decision to acquire at least another four anti-missile “iron dome” missiles (at $70 million apiece). The two currently deployed have yielded good results but they aren’t sufficient to destroy the many rockets (well over 100 only in recent days) that have been fired. Like the two “iron domes” currently in operation, the additional four will protect densely populated urban areas in the hope that those fired in the direction of other places will cause no or little harm, as mercifully has been the case so far.
I’ve tried to understand expert opinion about why Hamas is initiating these senseless attacks across the Gaza border, knowing full well that they won’t destroy, or even destabilize, Israel while causing untold harm to themselves, not least as a result of Israel’s seemingly successful targeted killings of Hamas operatives, allegedly even in such faraway places as Sudan. Not having yet found any persuasive explanation, I assume that Hamas is doing it for internal reasons to show that it’s still in charge at a time when smaller, more radical, splinter groups are said to be doing their own thing.
It’s not difficult to understand why Israel is responding. Though it may incur more international wrath bound to erode whatever credibility Israel gained recently because of Richard Goldstone’s retraction of one of the key points in his report, its primary responsibility is, of course, to its citizens and they demand swift and, vainly perhaps, decisive action. When the rockets weren’t falling, the government spent millions to build shelters and in other ways protect the population. Once the missiles started coming again, forceful military action was called for.
I’m impressed by the arguments that suggest that despite the interventions, Israel isn’t really interested in toppling Hamas, not out of love but out of fear that its rival, Fatah of the West Bank, isn’t strong enough to replace it and, therefore, even more radical, belligerent groups will. As so often in other situations in and around Israel, the status quo, unsatisfactory though it is, seems to be preferable to its alternatives.
If there’s any silver lining for the government in the present Gaza crisis, it’s that the public and the media seem to have lost, at least temporarily, some interest in the various corruption investigations of ministers and others as well as of the fallout of the revelations of Wikileaks about the hypocrisy of politicians who mouth clichés to fool the public while being more realistic in private conversations with American officials.
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Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. He now divides his year between Canada and Israel. He may be contacted at dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com