Israel is not going to just absorb rockets from Hamas and pretend everything is fine, even though all the “experts” think they should.

It has been a horrific few days in Israel. How did we get here? Well, just a couple of weeks ago, the Palestinian Authority announced that they were “postponing” the election that they had promised to hold this year. They haven’t had an election since 2006. Why would Mahmoud Abbas postpone the election? Because his poll numbers were dropping and his party, Fatah, would likely lose to Hamas.

Fears have been growing that Fatah would lose power to Islamist group Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the U.S. and other world powers. After Hamas won a surprise victory in the 2006 parliamentary elections in the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, the U.S. and much of the rest of the world refused to engage with its government.”

Reconciliation efforts between Hamas and Fatah to form one government have repeatedly failed.”

Let’s remember that Hamas is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization by the State Department before we go any farther in this trip down memory lane, and that Fatah, the political home of Yasser Arafat, is not much better. But in a not-shocking move, Abbas blamed Israel for making him postpone the election, since he just wants to make sure that Palestinians in Jerusalem can vote. Sure.

Israel has said it wouldn’t interfere with the vote, but hasn’t made clear whether a relatively small number of Palestinians residing in East Jerusalem—about 6,000 in total—would be allowed to cast ballots under Israeli supervision. Palestinians view their participation as an important symbol of their claims to East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after capturing it in the 1967 war. Mr. Abbas said his efforts to urge international powers to press Israel to allow the vote in East Jerusalem have so far failed.”

“Facing this difficult situation, we have decided to postpone the legislative elections until we make sure that Jerusalem and its people can participate,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in an early morning speech after a meeting of Palestinian factions.”

Forget what you see floating around on social media about housing and eviction (a legal case that is going through the court system, and if no one paid you rent in 50 years, you might want them evicted, too) in Sheikh Jarrah. That is just a pretext in order to create a distraction for Fatah not holding these elections, which they would almost surely lose to Hamas. Hamas, for its part, is always happy to light off rockets and attack Israel. Who cares who they might hit?

16-year-old Arab Israeli girl and her father killed by a Hamas rocket.

What have @RashidaTlaib, @IlhanMN, or @AOC said today that makes you believe they think her life mattered? https://t.co/U07P7FKkDW

— AG (@AGHamilton29) May 12, 2021

Also, let’s remember that Hamas isn’t exactly a bastion of technological precision, and many of the casualties they “claim” could be a direct result of “friendly fire.”

Whoa: a Palestinian rights group says eight of the Palestinian casualties from the past 48 hours, including two children—aged 16 and 5—were killed by a Palestinian rocket that fell short, not Israeli airstrikes.

How many more cases like this may there be?https://t.co/LxsIDdb6Pi

— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) May 12, 2021

Meanwhile, governments around the world are dithering and whining about Israel defending itself. While the Squad falls all over itself to defend Hamas, credit should be given to Secretary of State Antony Blinken for stating the obvious, which is that Israel has the right to defend itself. Which is what has been happening, first with the Iron Dome, and second, with targeted hits on Hamas leaders.

Bassem Issa is the highest-ranking military figure in Hamas to be killed by Israel since 2014, according to The Associated Press. Hamas confirmed his death in a statement.”

The armed wing of Hamas said Issa was killed “along with a few of his fellow brothers of leaders and holy fighters” during the fighting that has been going on for two days in Gaza.”

Israel’s internal security agency said a series of airstrikes had killed Issa and several other senior Hamas militants, including the head of rocket development and cyber warfare, the head of rocket production, and the Hamas engineering chief.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not mince words.

“Their blood is on their heads,” Netanyahu said of the terror groups’ leadership, delivering statements alongside Defense Minister Benny Gantz and IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi.”

“We stand united in the face of a vile enemy. We all mourn the dead and pray for the wounded and stand behind the IDF forces,” the prime minister said after a day that saw three Israeli fatalities from the rocket fire.”

The Hamas attacks are not likely to stop anytime soon, and there’s enough internal strife in Israel between the Arab and Jewish populations that bad actors are everywhere. The internal violence is bad enough without rockets being fired repeatedly from Gaza. Hopefully, the Israeli Defense Force can shut down Gaza rocket attacks with targeted strikes like these.

Just moments before terrorists in Gaza tried to fire rockets toward Israeli civilians, our aircraft struck & destroyed their 2 rocket launchers, stopping them in their tracks.

We will respond with force as needed. pic.twitter.com/6dIt9ww6SN

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 12, 2021

And to all the “experts” in the media and on social media who are busy lecturing Israel about how they are so “mean,” I hereby invite you to go to Gaza and tell Hamas just how good and noble they are for bombing Israeli civilians, even the Arab Israeli ones. Enjoy your trip.

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