Crush the monster while it's still small

From Ynet News, 32 July 2014, by Ben-Dror Yemini:

Israel will be committing a crime against itself and against the free world if it fails to forcibly demilitarize Gaza before it's too late.  

Difficult images of destruction are arriving from Gaza. They are being broadcast all over the world right now. When they are repeated again and again, they have a brainwashing effect. A sane person cannot remain indifferent to them. 

Those who protest against Israel are not only anti-Semites. They are human beings. It pains them. It pains most Israelis too. So how is it possible that despite these difficult images, despite the damage caused to innocent people, there is no other way but to deal Hamas' military force a critical blow? 

International Pressure  
The professional Israel haters, those who do it for a living and as a profession, like to compare Israel today to Germany in the 1930s. Let’s go down that same road. 

In those days too, an anti-Semitic movement developed inside Europe, spreading hatred. Then too, many people thought that if something bad was happening in Germany, there was a need for a dialogue, reconciliation, understanding. Others thought it was a monster that only wanted to eat Jews, not the free world. 

Between Chamberlain the appeaser and Churchill the aggressor – the majority supported reconciliation. We all know what happened next. 

Let’s skip the horrible war for a moment, which claimed the lives of 60 million people. Let's jump over to the horrific bombings of Dresden and Tokyo and to the two atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those were the incidents which concluded the war. Incidents which created havoc, destruction and horrors. 

Let’s just assume that in the early stage, in 1938, instead of the Munich Agreement with the Nazi regime, those who thought the Nazis should be attacked would have had the upper hand. Let's assume that France and Britain would have started bombing the Nazi regime's centers of power, in the stages when most of its force could have still been destroyed. 

It's safe to assume that a considerable number of the casualties would have been innocent people. Why in the NATO bombings of Belgrade in 1999 as well, most of the dead were innocent. 

What then? We know. Instead of great destruction, with tens of millions of casualties, there would have been a little destruction with tens of thousands of casualties. A little aggression against a little monster would have prevented huge destruction by a big monster. 

In the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the picture is much clearer. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis of the 1930s did not speak, at least not openly, about annihilating Jews. The Hamas charter and the Hamas leaders, on the other hand, speak openly about annihilating Jews. And not just Jews, but also "Christians and communists." And not just annihilation, but also "lebensraum," which includes "conquering Rome, London and the two Americas." 

Hamas' children's channel instills an alarming amount of hatred against Jews. Hamas' official channel asserts that 

"the Christians, the Jews and the communists must be destroyed to the very last one of them." 

They're not just talking. It's already happening in front of our eyes as we speak, in Musul in Iraq and in Raqqa in Syria. They are beheading their rivals, they are carrying out a mass slaughter. They are not hanging out in Musul's bars, as the Nazis did in Paris. They are bombing them and the people inside them. 

The US fought the Jihad's extensions in Afghanistan and in Iraq. It failed. The Taliban is growing stronger. ISIS is conquering. Israel cannot afford to lose. 

On this background, reconciliation can only take place, if at all, under the condition set by the European Union: A complete demilitarization of the Strip. Preferably in an agreement. The demilitarization must also include the incitement mechanisms. 

But as long as Hamas refuses – and Hamas refuses – it must be done forcibly. Now it's still possible. Tomorrow it may be too late. 

The killing and destruction are distressing. As long as Hamas not only talks about annihilation, not only refuses reconciliation, but also invests everything it has in huge terror mechanisms, tunnels and rockets, Israel will be committing a crime against itself and against the free world if it fails to take action to crush the monster. It should happen now, while the monster is small. If it doesn't happen, in five years the free world will reach a big Dresden. 

And one last thing. Sam Harris, an American philosopher, atheist and rationalist, published an article this week titled, "Why don't I criticize Israel?" He does have some criticism. But his concluding sentence was: 

"The truth is, we are all living in Israel. It’s just that some of us haven’t realized it yet." 

Hey free world, are you listening?