Yesterday Charles Krauthammer posted an article in the Washington Postasking the obvious question, “Why was there a war in Gaza?” Hamas claims that the firing of rockets on Israel was part of the resistance to the occupation. What occupation? That is an interesting question.

The article reports:

What occupation? Seven years ago, in front of the world, Israel pulled out of Gaza. It dismantled every settlement, withdrew every soldier, evacuated every Jew, leaving nothing and no one behind. Except for the greenhouses in which the settlers had grown fruit and flowers for export. These were left intact to help Gaza’s economy — only to be trashed when the Palestinians took over.

Israel then declared its border with Gaza to be an international frontier, meaning that it renounced any claim to the territory and considered it an independent entity.

In effect, Israel had created the first Palestinian state ever, something never granted by fellow Muslims — neither the Ottoman Turks nor the Egyptians who brutally occupied Gaza for two decades before being driven out by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

So what is the problem? If Israel is not occupying Gaza, why are the rockets being fired?

The article further states:

Interrupted by the occasional truce, to be sure. But for Hamas a truce — hudna — is simply a tactic for building strength for the next round. It is never meant to be enduring, never meant to offer peace.

But why, given that there is no occupation of Gaza anymore? Because Hamas considers all of Israel occupied, illegitimate, a cancer, a crime against humanity, to quote the leaders of Iran, Hamas’s chief patron and arms supplier. Hamas’s objective, openly declared, is to “liberate” — i.e., destroy — Tel Aviv and the rest of pre-1967 Israel. Indeed, it is Hamas’s raison d’etre.

There will be no peace for Israel as long as Hamas holds power in Gaza and their charter calls for the destruction of Israel. If the western countries of the world truly want peace in the Middle East, they need to take that fact into consideration. Israel has survived another attempt to destroy it, but, unfortunately, this will not be the last attempt.