Netanyahu: Israel Should Have Destroyed Hamas

My blogging friends and I watched the December-January drubbing of Hamas in the Gaza Strip as a "long-time coming but so glad it finally arrived." The emails flew...will this be another "Lebanon-style...Summer War?" Oh please, no...don't let that happen. Each of us knew the sick feeling in the pit of our stomach as the war progressed. Talk of a truce, talk of a cease-fire, talk of a cease-fire to allow food and medical aid...it was agonizing. Please don't do any of the above. Push on...get it done. This is your chance. Oh no, please no...don't let this stop before it's over. We prayed for the Israeli soldiers and their families. We counted and posted the number of rockets hitting Israel everyday. Some of us received a text message each time a rocket launched, and that moment we fulfilled our promise to pray Psalm 130. We watched as Israel left without finishing the job - no matter what Olmert and Livini and Barak had to say, the job wasn't finished. We felt like dish rags wrung dry. It's amazing how completely consumed we can be, each blogger sitting here, somewhere in the U.S. We don't really know each other except by the work we post daily or almost daily. Most of us are not Jewish. I think only one of us has ever been to Israel. How could we feel so connected? This isn't Iraq. This isn't Afghanistan. Still, it was our war too, and to put it even more simply, we know the difference between right and wrong. We understand the nature of Islam.

Benjamin Netanyahu So now the Israeli elections are a few days away, and some of us struggle to understand Israeli politics. I want the great Hawk, Benjamin Netanyahu to be the next Prime Minister. He's the only one that makes sense to me. Having said all that, I know next to nothing about the dynamics of running Israel. The only issue seems to be survival. Are there other issues? I'm sure there are, but... Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud Party candidate for Israel's next Prime Minister, approaches the coming election with clarity:

Israel should have destroyed Hamas. The next government will have no choice but to finish the work and remove the Iranian base for good. [he considers Hamas one of the heads of the Iranian snake]

Zeev Begin, son of Menachem Begin, the first Likud Prime Minister, and one of the top Likud party officials, went even further. Speaking at a rally in Jerusalem, he said that the Gaza operation was a failure:

One million Israelis remain under the threat of rockets. After this operation the terrorists came out of their hiding places waving not white flags but the green flags of Hamas.

Barak and Livini say they did everything right...pulled out at the right time, executed the operation perfectly...and they are not yet finished with Hamas. I don't believe them. Related: Netanyahu: No Nukes for Iran