Some "victory."

Take any organization, founded for whatever reason, and pretty soon its first order of business becomes self-preservation.
Back in the Middle Ages, when the Catholic Church needed money, the Pope sold indulgences whereby wealthy mortals could assure their souls a shortcut past Purgatory and straight through the Pearly Gates.
When Jonas Salk discovered the polio vaccine, the March of Dimes reinvented itself as a crusader for pre- and neonatal care.
So now comes Hamas, whose popularity with Gazans is in decline because it is failing to deliver on all those mundane promises about lowering crime, keeping the lights on, and getting the garbage picked up. A dingy light bulb clicks on over some strategist's head, and he says, "I know, let's go shoot rockets at the Israelis! They'll retaliate in force, as they always do. We hide amongst our own people, they get mowed down, we fight back in their name, and even though we're sure to lose, we're heroes! We sweep the next elections!"
That's all well and good, except for the people who got mowed down. Nobody asked them.


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Comments
Not quite the whole story. Gaza has three boarders: Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean coast line. Nothing in, nothing out along the coast line and the Israeli boarder, complete blockade of food, water, fuel, etc. Plus, part of the blast wall separating Gaza and Israel was built on Gaza territory. Plus, inability of Gaza residents with land (farms, groves, etc) to cross the boarder, tend the land, reap the harvest, etc.
By the way, the rubble in your poster was a function of excessive Israel force, which included attacks on University, UN Facilities, Government facilities, private residences, etc. The cartoon is correct in one representation, it was carnage…
Sorry, your graphic is correct, you misfired in its representation
Posted by: Our Paul | January 23, 2009 9:47 AM
Regarding the post from "Our Paul", it is quite naive to complain about "..excessive Israel force". Israel has been attacked by about 3,000 missiles over its recent history. The missile attacks, although always potentially deadly and certainly always frightning, have been generally inaccurate. Nobody with an once of military common sense would suggest anything other than attacking, if at all, with superior and overwhelming force. The Israelis have been much more restrained than most of us could imagine over the past few decades. I suppose the proper thing to do would be to respond in kind with large amounts of random, relatively inaccurate missile fire over a long period of time. You know...just to be fair. Please. You go to war or you don't go to war. It's Hamas who concerns themselves little with the value of human life...even their own. Purposely placing military assets and personnel in areas such as schools and Mosques is irresponsible and immoral. Hamas, a terrorist organization, was elected to a prominent position in the Palestinian government. They are bent on Israel's destruction. Excessive force? Absolutely not.
Posted by: john | January 24, 2009 3:02 PM