A Hundred Reasons Why...

Over 100 improvised bombs and grenades were hurled at Israeli troops during Friday’s riots at the Gaza border, the military said Saturday.-

That was the opening sentence from a Times of Israel article about Friday’s violent Hamas protest on the border of Israel. I get that it won’t be big news. Nothing short of Trump being impeached would make people and the media focus on anything else besides the Kavanaugh debacle. Yet it doesn’t excuse what led to this moment, or what will lead to worse moments to come.

Peaceful protestors and unarmed civilians was the mantra when the Hamas protest started. Indeed there were many, maybe even a majority of unarmed protestors when it was started. But the reporters and photographers who are supposed to see the whole picture need to get their eyes checked. They missed entirely those that were armed and those that tried to enter Israel by breaching its border. And to do what, on the slim chance they would have succeeded? Did those reporters miss the statements made by the leaders of Hamas?

Hamas, like any other living organism learns and it evolves. Where once they were simply brutal, they are now also strategic. Here’s what they have learned. First, low tech terror works as well as the high tech bomb making kind and it’s more cost effective. It also works better as far as optics. The only weapon they have is a kitchen knife while the Israelis have tanks. The fact that Hamas is killing civilians doesn’t really resonate. Israelis have been successfully demonized.

Each week, as the Friday protests have continued, Hamas has added more and more armed participants. I would call this strategy desensitization. With the mantra of peaceful protestors still echoing in people’s minds, Hamas has turned up the heat a little at a time, much the way one boils a live lobster. The optics remain in Hamas’ favor. You have the armed Israeli soldiers and the crowds of people protesting. The soldiers must be there to shoot Palestinians. Why else?The closeness of the Israeli homes to the protests is never shown. The idea that the soldiers are protecting civilians living less than a mile away is never raised because the stated goal of Hamas via these protests has been completely ignored. All people see are what they are shown. What they are shown are people protesting behind a fence. Caged in. Never mind that the fence is the legitimate sovereign border of Israel.

Each improvised bomb thrown, is the reason Israel will defend its citizens. Every bomb you and the media ignore is a reason Hamas will continue and the IDF will be forced to act. It will be ugly. What is the number of reasons needed for the world to respond?