A cease-fire with Hamas is nonsense

Since when did terrorism enter the lexicon of valid political or diplomatic debate? Since when did intellectual up become intellectual down and the real targets of intended genocide, Israel and the Jewish people, become the accused perpetrators of genocide?

In a recent interview with the foreign media, a Hamas terrorist was asked, “How is it that most of your missiles fall in open areas to such an extent that they are predominately inaccurate?” In response he allegedly replied simply that “our missiles are accurate, but the God of the Jews moves them …” So the interviewer then asked him if so, why do you keep shooting at Israel? ... The terrorist allegedly replied, “we are waiting for the God of the Jews to get angry with them and stop helping them.”

All the cease-fires of the last 17 years with Hamas has only resulted in ever increasing hostility, and a constant cascading of rockets on civilians in Southern Israel. The IDF’s responsive retaliatory attacks on so-called strategic targets have proved futile since for all practical purposes, they were rebuilt and restocked soon after with more sophisticated weapons than the weapons that the IDF destroyed before the cease-fire took place.

For this we can count on Israel’s peace-treaty partner, Egypt, who knowingly allowed and encouraged the resupply of Iranian weapons and rockets to Hamas through the tunnels beneath the Rafa crossing, while above ground food, medicine, building materials, etc., flowed into Gaza for the civilian population.

We now know that unfortunately, these humanitarian supplies were rarely if ever used for the benefit of the general population but were commandeered by Hamas and sold to the population at tremendous profits for the terrorist organization, with the Egyptian government and black marketeers reaping multi-million-dollar fees for their participation over all these years.

Since the onset of the war, after the barbaric attack on Oct. 7, 2023, by thousands of Hamas terrorists and the civilian looters who followed them and participated in their crimes, it is reported that Hamas has earned more than $500 million dollars from the humanitarian aid pouring into Gaza from the Rafa and several Israeli crossings.

If this aid would have been properly distributed by the UN and other AID agencies operating in Gaza it would have avoided any semblance of food or medical insecurity which the world press is wringing its hands over, and of course blaming Israel.

Why is the Israeli/Palestinian conflict which has been going on for almost a century not been resolved either by war or diplomacy? Well, the answer to the former is that the world does not allow Israel to win its wars because the world is more interested in short-term stability than long-term peace and appeasing the Muslim world.

Israel has sought from the very beginning to live in peace with its Arab neighbors whether they be Sunni, Shia or any of the hundreds of Arab tribes and clans that comprise the Arab and Persian peoples. Islam, on the other hand, especially, its radical adherents, prohibit it from dealing fairly, equitably and respectfully with its non-adherents, calling them infidels and considering them of a lesser humankind.

Not surprisingly, Jews and Judaism are at the forefront of the infidel classification, but be assured Christians and Christianity follow closely behind, as well as all the other non-Islamic cultures and religions that make up the bulk of humanity.

Radical Islam is antisemitic, antidemocratic, racist, misogynistic, and discriminatory. It permits no compromise. Its focus is violent imposition of Islam on the entire world.

This is why diplomacy has not been effective in dealing with or resolving these conflicts in the Middle East. Modern diplomacy is simply not equipped to negotiate with the 6th and 7th century dogma that permeates Islamic theology; it is this theology that guides the behavior of Muslim state and non-state terrorists which leaves no room for compromise.

The United States and its Western allies have not fully grasped this fact. There is hope that some nations and peoples in the Arab and Muslim world are tempering their Islamic beliefs and reinterpreting religious beliefs in light of contemporary realities. Until that becomes the norm, this century could become the bloodiest is human history; and cease-fire and appeasement diplomacy will remain as non-sensical policies for the free world.

If you wish to comment or respond you can reach me at melpearlman322@gmail.com. Please do so in a rational, thoughtful, respectful and civil manner.

Mel Pearlman holds B.S. & M.S. degrees in physics as well as a J.D. degree and initially came to Florida in 1966 to work on the Gemini and Apollo space programs. He has practiced law in Central Florida since 1972. He has served as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando; was a charter board member, first vice president and pro-bono legal counsel of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Central Florida, as well as holding many other community leadership positions.