By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:
The quiet lull that had settled in between Gaza and Israel has been broken.
A series of rockets has been launched from Gaza into Israel. Some of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile triangulation system. But others fell on Israel's border communities.
The Israeli air force struck back, hitting launch sites and weapon storage caches inside Gaza.
It is clear that the shooters were not Hamas - the relative quiet/lull was broken by the Islamic Jihad. But
Hamas is in charge of Gaza. Islamic Jihad is the second largest group.
What was Islamic Jihad's motivation? They risk an internal conflict with Hamas.
It all has to do with Syria.
Hamas has called for and is supporting the rebels and Islamic Jihad is supporting the Assad regime. Iran has withdrawn its support for Hamas but it is definitely still supporting Islamic Jihad.
This internal tension is extremely important to understand. Islamic Jihad is preening for Iran. Islamic Jihad is clearly illustrating to Iran that Hamas is not - I repeat, is not - totally in charge in Gaza and that Iranian agenda can be put into play in Gaza for the right amount of money.
If Hamas wishes to survive this internal dispute they have one option: they must crush the Islamic Jihad.
If Islamic Jihad persists in their rocket attacks into Israel I expect Hamas to crack down very hard and eliminate the ability of their foe to challenge Hamas on the local and the regional scene.
If Israel ends up being the beneficiary of this in-fighting, so be it.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
Read my new book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=halpern%2C+micah
To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
No comments:
Post a Comment