Gaza: The Untold Story

Here's an in-depth look at the current situation in Gaza.

FROM FRONTPAGEMAG.COM:

Gaza: The Untold Story
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Jonathan Schanzer, deputy director of the Jewish Policy Center. He has served as a counterterrorism analyst at the U.S. Department of Treasury and as a research fellow at Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He is the author of the new book, Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle For Palestine. Daniel Pipes wrote the foreword to the book and some of the research was undertaken at Pipes' Middle East Forum.


FP: Jonathan Schanzer, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Schanzer: Thanks, Jamie.

FP: You are an expert on Hamas and Fatah. What were Hamas’s calculations in it its rocket attacks?

Schanzer: First, it is important to stress that these rocket volleys are not at all new. Hamas has been firing rockets consistently at Israel for many years now – since 2001. Even during the recent ceasefire, or “lull” as some call it, Hamas fired salvo after salvo of rockets against Israel.
From a targeting perspective, as I note in my book, Hamas really has no calculations. Qassam rockets are very crude homemade weapons. They are virtually impossible to fire with any accuracy. Hamas simply aims them in the direction of Israeli civilian populations and then hopes that they cause damage or casualties.

In terms of a broader strategy, Hamas fires these rockets because its financial patron, Iran, encourages the group to do so. In fact, I would venture to say that Hamas would not have broken the ceasefire had it not gotten permission from the Mullahs to do so.

On a grassroots level, Hamas gains popularity by carrying out violence against the Jewish state. In other words, causing Israeli bloodshed strengthens Hamas’s political standing on the Palestinian street, where the majority puts a premium on anti-Israel violence.

FP: So if the majority of Palestinians in Gaza support Hamas’s vision of destroying Israel, which is reflected in the fact that the Palestinians elected these radical Islamists to power in 2006, how exactly can the world not blame the Palestinians for what we now see unfolding? Expand for us a bit on Palestinians’ support for violence against Jews and how any peace can even be possible if that kind of hate is not dealt with and denounced.

Schanzer: You get to the crux of the Palestinian–Israeli conflict here. The conflict exists because most Palestinians still seek the destruction of the State of Israel. This is why Hamas, an organization that is known primarily for its suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israel, won the popular vote in the free and fair legislative elections of 2006. Suicide attacks and rocketing get wide approval ratings in the Palestinian territories. This is, to some extent, why Hamas and other groups continue to employ these violent tactics. The decision to support murder and bloodshed is now backfiring horribly on the Palestinian people.

FP: Did Hamas hope for this Israeli response?
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