The Palestinians’ two illegitimate governments have once again denounced Israeli “aggression” against the “helpless” residents of the Gaza Strip.
Such denunciations always come after the Israel Defense Forces succeed in foiling a terror attack from the Gaza Strip or fire back at terrorists who launch rockets and missiles at Israeli targets.
The Hamas government, which sometimes turns a blind eye to anti-Israel terror attacks, is usually the first to condemn Israel whenever the IDF fires back or takes action to thwart the firing of rockets and missiles.
In some instances, Hamas members are directly involved in the attacks against Israel. Yet this does not stop the Hamas government from demanding international intervention to halt Israeli “aggression.”
The Hamas government is now using the IDF’s anti-terror operations to drive a wedge between Israel and Egypt. This week, for example, when the IDF killed six Palestinians who tried to carry out terror attacks against Israel, Hamas leaders complained to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President, Mohamed Morsi.
Hamas is hoping that Morsi would endorse a more hardline stance toward Israel. The Palestinian Islamist movement would like to see Morsi cut off Egypt’s diplomatic relations with Israel under the pretext that the Israelis are killing “innocent” Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, for its part, has always been exploiting Israel’s military operations against terrorists to incite the international community against Israel.
Each time the IDF strikes back at terrorists, Palestinian Authority leaders and spokesmen accuse Israel of escalating tensions and killing innocent people as part of an effort to “sabotage” the peace process.
Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority do not have the guts to condemn the terrorists who fire rockets and missiles at kindergartens and other civilian targets inside Israel. That is because they are either afraid of the terrorists or fully sympathize with their attempts to kill Israeli civilians.
As far as Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are concerned, it all started when Israel fired back. And they want the rest of the world to adopt this line. Sadly, there is no shortage of naïve people in the West who share this argument.
The only way to stop the violence is by demanding that the terrorists stop using the Gaza Strip as a launching pad for attacks on Israel. These terrorists are causing more harm to the Palestinians than anyone else.
But Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are not going to do anything to make sure that the terrorists stop. In fact, the two parties would like to see the terror attacks continue so that they can have an excuse to denounce Israel whenever the IDF fires back.
Originally published by the Gatestone Institute.