Sympathy or Victory?

What would you rather have, the sympathy of the world or a victory in your war? I hope any responsible person would select the latter, victory in war is much more important then being the victim and thus receiving the sympathy of the world. Jews know this lesson very well, we learnt it the hard way. After the Holocaust in Europe durng WWII the Jews received a lot of sympathy, but it was too late, 6 million of our people had been murdered.

At present Hamas is waging a war to elicit the sympathy of the world, by portraying the Palestinians as the victims in their current conflict. Here are some examples of what they do for this purpose: 1. Start the conflict by a massive attack and massacre of unarmed Israeli civilians, but then deny that it ever happened; 2. Exaggerate their civilian casualties that the liberal media are happy to accept and report; 3. Claim that Israel is carrying out a genocide against them, while in fact that is what they did; 4. Claim they are the victims of “colonization” when in fact they and their Arab/Muslim supporters are the colonizers (this claim is so absurd when you see the size of Israel and the million times larger Arab world); 5. Claim they are the victims of “apartheid,” when in fact no such thing exists in Israel (apartheid is the legal separation of races, there is no such thing in Israel). If I have a choice I would rather be the victor than the victim, sympathy can only take you so far.

I read an article that contrasted the Israeli strategy in Gaza against Hamas to that of the US forces against ISIS in Mosul. Not only was the US war in Mosul much bloodier in terms of casualties on both sides, but the number of civilian casualties were much higher. This was attributed to the decision by the Generals in charge not to carry out a war targeting the ISIS combatants, but rather to capture ground and then hold it. This is the opposite of what the IDF has done in Gaza. They specifically target the Hamas fighters, especially the commanders, and do not hold ground, which invites an insurgency and causes more casualties. This is why the IDF went back to the Al Shifa Hospital and Jabalya and reconquered them, they allowed Hamas to reform and then attacked them again, wiping out their forces. This was criticized by some experts, but it has proved a successful strategy.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been quoted as saying, “We have the Israelis just where we want them,”and “The more casualties we have the more sympathy we will get.” This indicates a degree of wishful thinking that is staggering. Most rational people would choose to make a deal with Israel, given that they will never accept to end the war on Hamas’s terms. But even the Israeli agreement to a permanent ceasefire at the end of the three-phase deal is not acceptable to them. Which indicates that their situation is not so dire yet. This is mainly because the more Palestinian civilians that are killed the more sympathy they get. The ignorant and naieve students who are calling for a ceasefire do not realize that the Hamas leadership do not want a ceasefire yet, because they can only survive on sympathy, the more Palestinians killed the better as far as they are concerned. The US, the UNSC, the G7, the EU and Israel have all supported the three-phase proposal to end the war. Only the bloodthirsty Sinwar and Hamas have not agreed. The extra casualties are on their heads.