John Hinderaker:
Perhaps I am an outlier here, but I am not in favor of any plan to rebuild Gaza at the expense of others. Should Gaza’s attempted genocide really be rewarded with $53 billion in other people’s money? I think Gazans need to learn the lesson that it is a bad idea to start a war, and lose it.
The burden should be on them to build some kind of normal economy, and actually do productive work instead of living on global welfare. Their sad enclave should be reconstructed only to the extent they can pay for it, and are willing to prioritize construction over terrorism.
There is no track record to suggest that Gazans, given the opportunity, will do anything so rational. In the meantime, they should live with the consequences of their own sadistic folly, unaided by others.
Ed Morrissey:
Having one's government start a war has consequences, especially when your side can't win an all-out war. Among the consequences is the disruption of trade with that enemy, along with that enemy's allies and/or unengaged nations that don't wish to enter the war. If the Gazans want electricity, food, and water, then they'd better start figuring out how to get it themselves or capitulate to the Israelis and negotiate the surrender of their government.
This is why starting wars is bad. It's especially why starting wars by massacres of civilians, widespread rapes of women and children, and kidnapping women and babies makes the situation even worse. Gazans launched a war of annihilation against Israel while expecting to suffer no commensurate risk of complete destruction themselves, a fantasy perpetuated by the same Western nations that now cluck their tongues at Israel's refusal to play along with their own destruction. The only way to end this was is for the disincentives for conflict to be clearly, consistently, and completely applied so as to leave no doubt that wars of national destruction can mean losing everything for those who start them.
The Israelis are slowly dialing up those consequences now. Gazans have a choice between Hamas and survival. If they keep choosing Hamas, don't blame Israel for finishing the war that the Gazans and their government keep trying to start by violating ten cease-fires over the past 19 years. The lights may be out in Gaza, but Gazans still can choose whether the lights will go out for Gaza.
More:
The war was never over in the first place, and now it's back on. This is what the Gazans bought when they elected Hamas to run their enclave, and then celebrated every disgusting atrocity Hamas committed. If they want an end to the war, then they need to do what every other aggressor whose war of annihilation backfired on them had to do: beg for mercy, deliver the hostages unconditionally, and surrender their leadership to the victors. Gazans should read up on the final days of the Nazis in Germany and the bushido cult in Japan. They're risking a similarly historical FO.
# posted by Ranger @ 7:58 PM
