Backfire: “To produce an unexpected, undesired result.”
With that useful definition in mind, now ponder the dilemma facing the “leadership” of Hamas. Not only have they caused the IDF to return to the Gaza Strip as a direct result of their abducting the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, they have also seen over 100 Hamas members arrested for their role in the abduction and for ties to terrorism, some of those arrested even include elected members of the PA parliament. Captain’s Quarters posts:
“Israel changed the game on Hamas. Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal gambled that the Israelis would sit back and take no action, falling back to earlier strategies of prisoner trades for hostages.”
They made a terrible gamble error that Israel would be willing to negotiate for the return of an IDF soldier, as they have done in the past with other terrorist organizations. This time around, its a democratically elected terrorist regime doing both the kidnapping and demanding, and all bets are off.
The JPost reports that even Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak wants Syria to deport the Hamas leadership from Syria if they don’t agree to release the IDF soldier;
“The Egyptian president also demanded from his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad to deport the Syrian-based Hamas leadership unless it agreed to Shalit, Palestinian sources said. He warned Mashaal that by insisting that thousands of Palestinian detainees be released in exchange for Shalit, he was leading the Palestinians to disaster, Israel Radio reported.”
Even more damaging is the response from senior official in the Fatah, who is a close associate of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. While he condemns Israel’s intrusion into the Gaza Strip, he places full blame for the disaster now facing the Palestinians squarely upon the Hamas government. Even the Israeli government is pleased with how the EU has stood firmly with Israel in condemning the abduction, refraining from any outspoken displeasure with Israel (except for France) and calling for the return of the soldier.
It is of course just a matter of time before al-BBC, al-Reuters, al-AFP, al-France 2, al-EURONEWS, al-AP and so on start priming their “propaganda war pump” with a “war crimes” media campaign against Israel for starving the Palestinians in Gaza. No water, no sewage, food shortages and so on. They are already “wringing their hands” with the latest developments, just waiting to print stories of war crimes and genocide accusations against Israel.
But as it stands, Israel has the Hamas backed into a corner, while Israel and the rest of the sane world demands they release Shalit. KGS
Special thanks to JG.
