Hamas remains a threat to Israel

11/25/2012

The rock­ets from Gaza that pre­cip­i­tated re­cent hos­til­i­ties be­tween Ha­mas and Is­rael have stopped rain­ing ter­ror over mil­lions of Is­raeli cit­i­zens ("Pal­es­tin­ians cel­e­brate as truce holds," Nov. 25).

Since Is­rael re­lin­quished con­trol of Gaza in 2005, 13,000 rock­ets have been fired over the bor­der, 1,900 this year alone. No na­tion can tol­er­ate this.

After 9/11, Amer­i­cans have a full ap­pre­ci­a­tion of Is­rael’s po­si­tion. Our gov­ern­ment can be praised for help­ing Is­rael with the re­sources and tech­nol­ogy to fend off many of these for­ays.

How­ever, Is­rae­lis can’t and won’t be ex­pected to live their lives in bomb shel­ters. We all hope and pray for peace, but there have been cease-fires be­fore.

The free move­ment of goods and peo­ple that Ha­mas is de­mand­ing in its ne­go­ti­a­tions will only lead to more ter­ror if the con­stant smug­gling of weap­ons, which has gone on for years, is al­lowed to con­tinue.

Is­rael has made dif­fi­cult sac­ri­fices and ter­ri­to­rial com­pro­mises. They have led no­where. As long as Ha­mas puts its ded­i­ca­tion to Is­rael’s de­struc­tion above the wel­fare of its own peo­ple, this will only be one more lull in the fight­ing.

Is­rae­lis again will be forced to do what they must: pro­tect them­selves.

STEVEN EDELSTEIN

In­terim CEO Jew­ish Fed­er­a­tion of Greater Toledo Syl­va­nia