Getting things straight.

I recently wrote a response to Lisa Goldman, which I present here for the record and for your consideration.

Let me correct a glaring mistake in this article.

Doing [half a] job and not eliminating Hamas, will strengthen the extremists. Therefore if we go with the advice advocated in this article, we would end up strengthening Hamas.

Doing a full job and eliminating Hamas, will eliminate the extremists ability to act - and therefore weaken them operationally. Anyone who doesn’t think that eliminating the operational capacity of an openly genocidal terrorist network is a positive thing needs to check themselves into a ward.

The article demands “an immediate and permanent ceasefire”, but if we have an immediate ceasefire it will not be permanent. Hamas has no interest in ceasing in its goals of annihilating Israel. Any declared ceasefire will only be bound to Israel. Advocating this immediate ceasefire is simply an attempt to limit Israel’s ability to act against Hamas and will enable Hamas to grow in strength. Furthermore, calling for an immediate ceasefire at this point shows complete hypocracy. Where was this call while Hamas was repeatedly firing at Israeli civilians? It was nowhere.

I also want to mark out the elephant: this article equates Israeli and Palestinian deaths - not noting the fact that Hamas instigated this round of fighting by attacking Israeli civilians, not noting the fact that Hamas is an opnely genocidal terrorist network, and not noting that Israel may have made history in its efforts to avoid civilian casualties through its warning of population centers of attack through leafleting and the phone (despite the fact this alerts Hamas to Israeli targets), and its utilization of precision attacks that reduce collateral damage as much as humanly possible.

I look at loss of life as a terrible thing, however I understand quite clearly that responsibility for lost life on all sides rests with Hamas as demonstrated by their refusal to distinguish their forces from any non-combatants, their refusal to renounce their [founding] exterminationist charter, and their constant attacks which coincide with their exterminationist agenda… for starters.

Lisa Goldman, by advocating that Israel stop military efforts in Gaza you are leading Israel towards being a failed state - for what is a nation that is unable to defend its own people?

Ps. Where is the letter addressed to Hamas?

Answer: "Of course there is no letter addressed to Hamas because we are hypocrites."

Red, naturally, beat me to the punch though.

Here is her response to the same article.

This letter shows a deep lack of understanding of the conflict, as well as international law. Lisa, you need to do more research before espousing this belief *which harms Am Yisrael.* I know for a fact that you already have had a negative influence upon Sandmonkey.

Now, let’s get to the facts. Firstly, Hamas refuses any offer of a ‘ceasefire.’ Secondly, should Hamas accept a UN-imposed ‘ceasefire,’ they would ironically not be bound by it according to international law. I am an attorney, but any common sense person would realize that the UN can only ‘bind’ (to the extent they bind!) MEMBER STATES. Hamas is not a member state! As such, a ‘ceasefire’ would only mean what it has meant since the dawn of the conflict: we cease, they fire.

Lisa, you appear to believe in ‘negotiations.’ I recently went to a Hamas rally (counter-demonstrated) where genocidal chants were said. Do you not know the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict, wherein ‘negotiations’ have only led to hudnas with the Palestinians - i.e., reloading. Why do you want to impose such a horror upon the people of Sderot and Southern Israel? Honestly, what are you thinking? Are you even thinking?

Finally, I realize the people of Gaza are suffering. Yet it is a self-induced trauma. The Palestinians receive more aid per capita than anyone else on earth. Yet they continue to suffer because Hamas squanders this aid on guns and bombs. There are hundreds of tunnels between Gaza, Israel, and Egypt. Yet these tunnels are not used for food smuggling, but rather solely weapons smuggling. This shows the priorities of Hamas. Furthermore, as you must know, 100% of all deaths in Gaza are Hamas’s fault. They started this war and are firing from civilian locations and using women and children as human shields. Moreover, there even have been cases of women and children running to be ’shahids.’

Israel has every right to defend itself, and yet you, as an Israeli, are waging a public relations campaign against your very country in this hour of need. Shonda, is all I can say.

In short, short, your support for this letter, as well as your previous article, deeply disappoint me. They show me that you are not the interesting and informative writer I thought you were. I used to be a big fan, and now I am not. With the past two columns, I see you are part of the problem.

Since I am not going to bother checking any responses at Lisa's blog, feel free to respond here.