Jay Reding.com

Michael Totten has an amazing dispatch from the besieged Israeli city of Sderot, the most common target of Hamas rockets. He notes what it’s like for the residents of Hamas’ war zone:

Fewer than twenty Israelis have been killed by rocket fire from Gaza since Hamas and Islamic Jihad adopted the tactic. A few single suicide bombers inflicted more casualties all by themselves. Hezbollah killed around ten times as many Israelis in one month in 2006 than Hamas has managed with crude rockets for years. It’s no wonder, really, that critics slammed Israel for its “disproportionate” military response in the Gaza Strip.

It’s not just about casualties, though. Leave aside the fact that Hamas was escalating its attacks with bigger and longer range rockets and that a far deadlier scenario was on the horizon. Living under Qassam and Grad rocket attack doesn’t sound like much fun, but it’s worse than the low body count makes it seem.

Thousands of rockets have fallen on Sderot. And every rocket launched at the city triggers an air raid alert. Everyone within ear shot has fifteen seconds to run into a shelter.

Imagine sprinting for cover 5,000 times.

What constantly amazes me about the Israelis is not that the respond in a “disproportionate” manner, but that they don’t. If Mexicans rained fire down on Texas like Hamas rains fire down on Sderot, right now US Marines would be storming the beaches of the Yucatan and Vincente Fox would be running for his life. Very few countries would possess the singular patience that the Israelis have. Had the Holocaust not been such a terrible formative event for the Israeli state, I wonder if Gaza would not be a smoldering ember right now.

The people of Sderot should not have to live in fear. There is no excuse for such wanton violence. Hamas’ terrorism has not only killed Israeli citizens, but it is unraveling the social fabric of the region. The Israeli people have acted with incredible patience and restraint in the face of indiscriminate attacks against innocent civilians. It is unconscionable for the people of Sderot to have to live under such conditions.

Their story needs to be told, and thankfully independent and honest journalists like Michael Totten are out there to bring those important stories to light.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are soon to meet in Annapolis and there have been comments indicating that there’s hope for a settlement by the end of the year. Unfortunately, even if that does happen—and there’s good reason to be skeptical—that agreement will no more bring peace than the Oslo Accords or the Camp David Accords before that. The problems in the Middle East are far more complex than anything solvable by mere diplomatic agreement.

The problem boils down to this: so long as the reprehensible anti-Semitism that is endemic in the Palestinian Authority persists, there will be no peace. So long as Palestinian children are indoctrinated to hate Jews, there will be no peace. So long as the Palestinians support acts of barbarity and terrorism against Israel, there will be no peace. So long as the Palestinians think that their end goal is the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state, there simply can be no real settlement. The best that can be hoped for is a cold peace with both sides under constant tension. That may be possible, but it’s not going to be much different from the status quo.

Groups like Hamas don’t want peace: they seek the destruction of Israel. Their terrorist forces rain crude home-made missiles on Israeli border towns like Sderot. They continue to force-feed their population with crude propaganda. They continue to say one thing in English and then the opposite in Arabic.

Golda Mier had it right: there will be no peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis until the Palestinians love their children more than they hate Israel. Sadly, that is not the case. While Palestine continues to slide into anarchy and remains mired in poverty, the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (such as it is) continue to misappropriate funds for terrorism and their personal enrichment. A wise set of rulers could have turned Gaza into a seaside paradise rather than the war zone it is.

The Palestinians may talk peace, but until they start living like they want peace with Israel, the best that Annapolis can bring is another stalemate.