After eight days of pounding each other from the air, a cease-fire between
Israel and Hamas was declared in Cairo. The streets of Gaza filled with
celebrating people, yet 70 percent of Israelis polled have expressed their
(often virulent) opposition to the agreement.
Why? Hasn’t Israel pulled
off a major accomplishment by getting Islamist Egypt to agree to negotiate and
even to guarantee an agreement that commits Hamas to abandon all attacks on
Israel? Wasn’t the goal of Operation Pillar of Defense to finally bring some
measure of tranquility to Israelis living with range of the Gaza rockets? Wasn’t
Hamas taught a lesson by the thousands of pinpoint Israeli airstrikes that
killed over 100 Palestinians under arms? Wasn’t avoiding a costly land incursion
that would cost many lives and endanger Israel’s diplomatic support sufficient
reason to celebrate? The answer to all of these question is “yes,
but.”
Despite all of the above, the cease-fire is not only a victory for
the Hamas, it is a significant defeat for Israel, the United States, the
European community and anyone else likely to fight jihadi terrorism. It must be
kept in mind that Hamas is the leading practitioner of terror in the world
today.
Its leadership is made up of sel-fdeclared war criminals who take
pride in their success at attacking and murdering unarmed civilians.
For
that reason alone, the pass they have just received from Israel and the
international community will plague all of us in the not-too-distant
future.
Again, there are logical reasons for Israel to have signed off on
an agreement that gives Hamas a political victory in the form of Israeli
promises to desist from hunting their leaders and to liberalize its policies at
the borders of Gaza. Beyond that, however, a great deal of pressure needed to be
applied before the Israelis saw the light. The parade of foreign dignitaries
that descended on Israel was not only impressive, but suspicious.
US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the German foreign minister and the
secretary-general of the United Nations all came, but what did they do? True,
they made public statements supporting Israel’s right to self
defense. However, they also demanded (at least implicitly) that Israel
stop hunting the mass murderers of Hamas and its allies.
None of them
told Israel: “You have not only the right but the obligation to attack the
Hamas, capture its leaders and put them on trial for war crimes, release the
Palestinians from the burden of a government devoted to mass murder and the
summary execution of anyone suspected of collaboration with Israel. Hamas has
written itself outside of international law and the international community
cannot tolerate its policies or its actions. So, Israel, go for it – we’ll be
there for you!”
In other words, as happens time and again, Israel, after many
thousands of missiles are fired at innocent Israeli civilians, has been left
with the following international doctrine: 1) It is illegal for anyone to attack
civilians – unless those civilians are Israeli 2) International law protects
Palestinians serving as human shields from attack by the Israeli army. Hence, if
Israelis attack Palestinian targets protected by human shields they will be
prosecuted under international law. 3) When Palestinians attack Israeli
civilians, the very same criminal code is suspended and the watchword is
restraint.
At the moment, this new code of international justice excludes
Israelis exclusively from protection under international law. History has
consistently shown that what starts with Jews and Israelis will soon apply to
everyone else.
Today its open season on Israelis, tomorrow, let the world
beware.
Yitzhak Sokoloff is a political analyst and educator. Jeffrey
Woolf is a Harvard-trained medieval Jewish historian and teaches in the Talmud
Department at Bar-Ilan University.
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