The news from Gaza is a human tragedy, filled with images of the wanton destruction of Gaza City and of the survivors poring over the rubble of their bombed out homes. Israel’s plan is to decimate their infrastructure in order to wipe out Hamas leaders who have embedded their command posts in hospitals, schools and even in refugee camps.
Israel must find a way to parse out Hamas from the local population in a political sense. Israel claims it does not want to occupy Gaza, but Gaza will need to be governed. If Israel stays on the path of destruction, it will drive the local population to stick with Hamas and it will produce more terrorists than it kills.
I think they need to start the political process for establishing a Palestinian state and find a substantial political entity for Palestinians to replace Hamas.
The local population must be separate from Hamas and it must be Palestinians who choose their leaders.
So far, the Israeli operations have caused the death of over 8,000 civilians because the civilian population and Hamas are so closely situated. Hamas will be recruiting family members to join their resistance.
The only way to defeat terrorists is to make specific attacks against identified terrorists with ideological ideas that appeal to the hearts and minds of the local population. Israel must allow the Palestinians to replace the terrorists and govern themselves in their own state.
Don Hiddleson, Millcreek
