After close to 1,000 rockets, or one every ten minutes – sometimes literally – the sum total of damage was a few houses, a gas station, a car, and ten cows – which PETA promptly condemned, of course. Sadly, two women died due to the Red Alert sirens; one slipped in the shower and one of a heart attack. Two Bedouin sisters were killed by an errant rocket as well. A 16-year old boy was severely hurt, a few others with varying degrees of injury, and some soldiers were injured in the line of duty, who are thankfully recovering.
We have struck at, if not the head, then certainly the neck, of Hamas. We have destroyed homes, stockpiles, and targeted their leaders, who gathered their families around them as if they could ward off the coming airstrike, much to their brief but terminal surprise.
So tomorrow we’re going to have a cease fire, which is going to be broken four minutes after it starts, because that’s what they do. And then a random rocket every once in a while to celebrate little Johnny Jihad becoming a man or whatever. And we’ll quietly absorb it, reminding ourselves that we are morally superior (which we are not), or some other mental salve that we tell ourselves when we don’t want to let our fury loose, and therefore must weather these nuisances with a quiet desperation that would make the English envious (with no apologies to Roger Waters).
The men who executed Eyal, Gilad and Naftali are still at large, who at this point could be anywhere on the planet, enjoying the fruits of their labors in the form of terrorist pensions.
Hamas retains most of its arsenal, with valuable battlefield experience regarding the range and accuracy of their weapons, as well as the capabilities and shortcomings of Iron Dome. Its remaining leaders will claim victory over the Zionists, and preen themselves on television, while three deaths go unanswered.
This is why we have a cycle of violence. We are doomed to repeat our history, because we do not learn from it.
See you next time.
