בתוך עזה DAY ONE

PM Netanyahu has given the order to send in IDF ground troops and destroy the tunnels in Gaza. May God protect our soldiers, and grant them an overwhelming victory. Netanyahu has decided that the lives of Israeli are more important than looking good for Obama, U.N. and the NY Times. Foreign media already are running over each other with unconfirmed Hamas claims of dead children and instant analyses that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision to send ground troops into Gaza precludes bloodbath. Israel has everything to lose and nothing to gain by standing pat and continuing to gamble that Hamas will not score a direct hit a crowded mall, school or factory while the terrorist regime’s policy of using human shields thwarts the Air Force’s ability to rid Gaza of terrorists and storerooms of thousands of rockets and missiles. Hamas has nothing to gain from a ceasefire, which would strengthen the hand of its rival Fatah faction, headed by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. “Operation Death Wish” is how The Jewish Press described Hamas large-scale attacks on virtually all of Israel, and by all accounts, Hamas has lived up to the name. If it was counting on Netanyahu to be too afraid to order ground troops into Gaza, it again was mistaken. If it was counting on the international community to stop Israel, it again was mistaken. Israel will not win many compliments from foreign media and from supposedly friendly countries, with the possible exception of Canada. President Barack Obama has been more or less quiet since Israel launched the Protective Edge counter-terror campaign 10 days ago. He has opposed a ground operation, but Israel no longer considers him as its de facto Secretary of Defense. Hamas’ decision to bomb try to explode rockets in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and even Haifa finally got the message across to the Israeli government to stop playing footisie. After a decade of sustaining approximately 15,000 mortar shells, rocket and missile attacks and after retaliating only enough to draw a ceasefire until the next round of attacks, the government now is ready to admit it is “kill or be killed.” Hamas’ best weapon right now is the international media. After Wednesday’s raid of a Gaza beach used by terrorists but also crowded with children, several of whom were killed in the bombing, Hamas is reporting that children have been killed left and right. Foreign media lap up the reports without verifying the facts or be more worried about the airliner downed over Ukraine by trigger-happy Russophiles. However, one offsetting factor was an official announcement by Egypt late Thursday night, “It is all Hamas’ fault” for not accepting a ceasefire. Hamas in effect gave Israel the green light to hit back at Hamas as hard as it can. Israel’s decision hold up its head and enter Gaza, even if it means a long-term operation and turns Israel into an “occupier,” puts the international media in its place. It can report deaths of women and children, but it cannot disguise the well-documented fact that Hamas is guilty of war crimes by using innocent civilians as shields for terrorists. The discovery by UNWRA of a Hamas stockpile of weapons in one of its schools Thursday is only the tip of the iceberg. Hamas will have a harder time ever in trying to win the war for PR, but if that is the only war it can win, it will be left with nothing. Sympathy from The New York Times, CNN and the U.S. State Dept. is not going to buy Gazans a sack of potatoes.