Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Hamas is a Taliban State

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=b8f0195c-151e-433b-a124-32c9317b77b4
Why a cease-fire between Jerusalem and the regime in Gaza will never
hold.
Martin Peretz,  The New Republic  Published: Wednesday, December 31,
2008
Maybe the Israeli government will concede to a cease-fire. We'll see.
But it is clearer in my mind than ever why a cease-fire between
Jerusalem and the regime in Gaza will never hold. Even the so-called
cease-fire in place since the summer was not remotely close to a true
pause in the fighting. That is, in the fighting from the other side of
the frontier. Day-in and almost every day-out, rockets were launched
from Hamas territory, and Israel did not fight back. Then, one day
last week, Hamas aimed 60 missiles, some more rustic, some much less,
into the Land, into eretz, as it is commonly called in Hebrew. This
was one violation of the truce too many. How long was Israel to stand
aside while its enemies, sworn by fanatic Islam to its destruction,
rained death, injury, and terror on its population?
It is sad that it had to come to this massive response of the Israeli
Defense Forces. Yet, it had to. For not only were the people of the
western Negev and municipalities abutting it continuously imperiled.
There were the tunnels into Gaza from the Sinai peninsula, tunnels
that brought all kinds of contraband and even luxury items to the
Palestinians of the wretched Strip. And, of course, fuel needed by the
people and also by Hamas, without which its capacity to kill would be
zero. But more than that.
The underground passages are Hamas's lifeline to additional weapons
and to increasingly advanced weaponry. What about Egypt? you ask.
Frankly, Egypt is a failed state, except for a competent intelligence
service operating in the cities; it has kept the democratic opposition
at bay. Still, even in Cairo and Alexandria, corruption is deep
rooted. At the crossing between the peninsula and Gaza, certainly, it
would not take much cash for a poor boy from the upper Nile suddenly
to become eyeless, and make it a habit for cash. Yes, "eyeless in
Gaza," as in John Milton and Aldous Huxley. The Mubarak government,
which now under the cover of Israeli airplanes is trying to choke
Hamas, never curtailed the terrorists' arms power at the geographical
source, the underground channels to what is, after all, Egyptian
territory. Egypt is another story, a pathetic story. Another time.
A cease-fire can sometimes be had between civilized governments. But
why isn't anyone pressing the United States and its allies in
Afghanistan into a cease-fire with the Taliban? A stupid question.
Because the enemy is the Taliban, and the Taliban could as easily
convert to Christianity as agree to an armistice with its opponents.
Maybe they'd agree to what the Arabs call a hudna, a pause, a lull,
but only on tactical grounds.
The fact is that Hamas is a Taliban state, as one Israeli diplomat put
it. This is almost an epiphany, a clarifying truth. Hamas operates
against its Palestinian enemies like the Taliban does against its
Afghani enemies. Imagine a Hamas squad enters a kindergarten in a
kibbutz. Neither the Taliban nor Hamas strive for earthly aims. Armed
with instruments of death, they each fight for a heavenly design. But
on earth. Yes, what a heaven that would be. Death is their own blessed
comrade. Go ahead, establish a cease-fire with one of them. America
before Israel.
The Taliban is not an analogy to Hamas. It is identical, equivalent. A
cease-fire with Hamas is a delusion. Engage with whom?
Israel has shown more than enough restraint through years of
provocation. Or, as my friend Bret Stephens has written, "No ingenious
conceit can disguise the fact war offers no outcome other than victory
or defeat. This is one big thing that Hamas understands." Let us hope
that Israel grasps this, too. And the new administration, as well.

 Maybe the Israeli government will concede to a cease-fire
no. Il resto è mancia