Here is the real story: “How Hamas
Beat Israel in Gaza ”. It is an article
written by Ronen Bergman who is an Israeli political and military analyst. His
piece appeared in the New York Times on August 11, 2014. And on that same day,
a dreamed up feel-good story appeared as an editorial piece written by the
cerebral paupers that make up the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal.
It came under the title: “The Arms Control Illusion” and the subtitle: “The U.S. says Russia is cheating. So what will
Obama do now?”
Bergman says in his article that
the best way to judge who won a military conflict is to compare “each side's
goals before the fighting and what they have achieved. Seen in this light,
Hamas won.” Making no mention of the fictitious role that the supposed Iron
Dome has played in this confrontation, he explains: “Soon Hamas was dictating
the duration of the conflict. Furthermore, it preserved its capability of
firing rockets and missiles at most of Israel 's territory, despite the
immense effort the Israeli Air Force invested in knocking out launch sites.”
Never before had the fighting capability of Hamas was so lauded, and that of Israel so
scorned.
But that's not all because Bergman
goes on: “Hamas also waged an urban campaign against Israeli ground forces,
inflicting at least five times as many casualties as in the last conflict and
successfully used tunnels to penetrate Israeli territory and sow fear and
demoralization. It made Israel
pay a heavy price and the IDF eventually withdrew its ground troops from Gaza without a
cease-fire.” And so he asks the question: “How did a guerrilla organization
overcome the strongest army in the Middle East ?”
And he responds: “Hamas's achievements are the fruit of effort to draw lessons
from previous Israeli defeats.” And he shows how and why Israel was booted out of South
Lebanon .
He discusses in detail the
glorious accomplishments of Hamas, and observes: “Israel 's leaders are determined to
represent Defensive Edge as a victory, and it is therefore unlikely that public
inquiry panels will be set up or that heads will roll.” From there, he goes on
to explain what Israel
should do now, among then: “Israel
may decide to focus on striking Hamas personnel outside Gaza , without taking responsibility … such
acts may now be judged more effective than massive military action.”
And that, by the way, is how Israel started its war against Fatah, the
Palestinian resistance group that Yasser Arafat founded, and Israel tried to
counter by creating Hamas to accompany it where it went, training it and
financing it to disrupt the activities of Fatah and assassinate its leaders. It
was the terrorist state of Israel
that begot what it eventually came to call the terrorist group of Hamas which then
turned against its creator. But that is now history.
As to what is happening at this
time, the birdbrain Wall Street Journal editors who sit in New York and
Washington in comfort, and where they pontificate on matters they know little
or nothing about – they have come up with a not so novel idea to make
themselves feel good after being forced to drink a full dose from the heavy
brew of feel-bad realism they were handed during the past few weeks.
What they did is latch on to a
report – such as those that come out all the time and mean nothing – to create
a mountain out of a molehill, and end with this punchline: “The success of
Israel's Iron Dome is proof of missile defense's potential … The broader lesson
is that arms control hasn't worked with Russia and surely won't with Iran.” It
is like drinking a glass of warm milk on a cold winter night before mom comes
to tuck you in bed.
With this, they were able to
temper the bitterness that overwhelmed them when the bad news hit. In fact,
they first delivered a cheap shot at their favorite target: “The Norwegian
Nobel committee probably won't rescind the 2009 peace prize it awarded Mr.
Obama … But the dream is in tatters.” He'll keep his prize but he won't savor
it as much as before. Ah! How good they now feel.