You Can Run, but You Can’t Hide ….

Throughout its short history, Israel has always pulled stunts like this. Gilad’s Schalit abductor has been sent to meet his 72 Virgins. Here is the article covering the story.

IDF: Shalit abductor killed
Senior Hamas man involved in IDF soldier's abduction killed in Gaza strike, army says

Senior Hamas member Taysir Saliman Abu-Saname, killed by the IDF in a southern Gaza Strip strike early Satruday, was involved among other things in Gilad Shalit's abduction, IDF officials said. The sources said the Shalit family was informed of the news. Abu-Saname held several senior posts in Hamas' military wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. He was also involved in the firing of rockets on the southern Israel city of Eilat, military officials said.

Hamas denies claims. However, Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for Hamas' armed wing, said Saname killing "will not affect our work" and dismissed Israel's claims. He said Israel "does not have the information about Shalit's capture to be able to say who among our leaders had a role in its execution." Ubaida also accused Israel of "looking for an achievement as a cover for their crimes." Army: 11 terror cells struck. Overall, IDF aircraft and armored forces struck some 11 terror cells in the northern and southern Gaza Strip, including terrorists firing rockets and mortar shells at Israel, the army said Saturday evening. The Air Force bombed another 15 terror targets in the Strip, including outposts, smuggling tunnels, and sites used to store and produce weapons. The army said that the targets were hit accurately.

Meanwhile, terror groups fired more than 120 rockets, mortar shells and missiles at Israel in the past two days, including more than 50 on Saturday. (Click Here for the Link to Source).

After reading this, what comes to mind is this: you could run, but you could never hide from IDF if you have Jewish blood on your hand. Israel has always fulfilled its promise to soldiers and their family that they’d do everything in their power to bring back soldiers or their body and bring their capturers and murderers to justice. Let’s hope for a day where Schalit is returned to his family. I am praying for daring rescue operation where it truly embarrasses Hamas. However, even if it is done through an exchange, I’d still be happy. He is an IDF soldiers who is still alive and MUST BE RETURNED TO HIS FAMILY ALIVE.

Overall: My sincere congrats to IDF for this achievement.

Arab Spring or Israel Spring?

As we’re dealing with the situation in the Arab world, you can’t fail to think what is Israel busy doing. Israel’s hands are tied with Hamas. Israel has declared a silent war on Hamas. This silent war is summarized in this Washington Post Article. (Click Here for the Article).
The questions that jumps out is “why now”? Things are flaring up in Gaza and southern Part of Israel. However, why has Israel waited this long to go into action? Israel has always been one step of its surrounding threats and it is mere negligence if Israel just ignored the problem with Hamas. The answer lies within several changes in the region.
1. The first change is the most obvious one. The Arab Spring is changing the complete picture for the region. As much as a lot of Terrorist Apologists are celebrating the events in the Arab world and calling it a slap in the face for Israel, Israel is quietly taking advantage of these events. This goes to prove the world that the Arab world and Arab government are incredibly unstable and unpredictable. Therefore, any peace treaty with these countries would simply prove to be nothing but a joke. The perfect example is Egypt. Even though EU and other Western countries who tend to be huge critic of Israeli policies are silent about what is happening in those Arab countries, but they are observing what is taking place in those countries. They are getting a sense of understanding with regards to the type of threat that Israel is surrounded with. At the same time, they are discovering about the Arab hypocrisy. All these Arab countries cried their eyes out for the Palestinian. They would be up in the arms in the UN if a single terrorist would be killed in Gaza strip. Yet, they are brutally murdering their own citizens with a straight face. Perfect example is Syria. Therefore, the critics of Israel cannot really pick on Israel if Israel is taking steps to protect herself. It is the best time for Israel to go into action and neutralize her enemies who are sworn to harm Israel’s citizens. The notion of “Israel has the right to protect her citizens” is making a lot of sense to those Western countries.
2. The Goldstone report was retracted by the Goldstone. I do not know what changed his mind or how did it change, but it was the biggest surprise of the year. I really did not see that happening and if you would have told me last year that this damaging and inaccurate report would be retracted by Goldstone himself, I would have said “you are being delusional.” Well, it happened and its effect, although minimal, allows Israel to point out that these fact finding groups are completely incompetent with frivolous agendas that does not involve truth. Goldstone’s retraction will not change anything for Israel. The funniest part is that the U.N has said that they have no intention of discrediting the Goldstone report even though its author has said it is inaccurate and defective and should not be used. This is U.N. for you. Israel will have to face the U.N. hypocrisy, however now the game has changed. Israel does not need to redeem herself to these Arab Propaganda Mouth Pieces (a.k.a. UN Resolutions) simply because they are losing accuracy day by day. It gives Israel a free hand to simply chase after these Hamas terrorist around the globe.
Israel has its work cut out for her. The war with Hamas is not something that is won overnight. This is the Middle East politics. Great majority of Israelis have the same mindset that this is a long war. With exception of bunch of Leftist Groups in Israel or U.S who are losing credibility on hourly basis, Israeli citizens are behind their government in terms of a Hamas showdown. Hamas on the other hand does not have such a blessing. There is growing discomfort with Hamas as a government due to the fact that they failed to deliver what they promised. Hamas is finding new friends in Egypt and Egyptian government. However, it would not be enough to redeem its failures in Gaza Strip. Palestinians in Gaza Strip are not dumb and as much as they love to hate Israel for their problems and shortcomings as a nation, they can still feel the pain that Hamas is inflicting upon them through disastrous and self-serving policies. This is exactly why we see Hamas is not interested in any sort of direct conflict with Israel at this point. There are also rumors floating around with regards to rift between the Political and Military wings of this terrorist organization. This is not good news for Hamas.
Now let’s put the whole picture together. The Arab Spring is consuming most of World’s attention. U.N and other NGO’s credibility took a hard hit with regards to Goldstone retractions, plus the ruthlessness of Arab Government and their stunning hypocrisy, add that to growing dissatisfaction of Gaza’s residence with Hamas, and this is one opportunity for Israel to go into a silence war with Hamas. Israel might or might not engage in military actions against Hamas which might involve ground forces, however at this point Israel has the upper hand. I wonder: should we call it “Arab Spring” or “Israel Spring”?