The Israel/Hamas Endgame: An 'Acceptable' Number of Missiles

In the first frame of the cartoon, the referee is going over a long a list of rules that the American fighter must abide by during the match. In the second frame, the ref turns to the al-Qaeda fighter. "You can do anything you want," he says. As the latest Israeli-Hamas confrontation looks on the verge of ramping up, absolutely nothing has changed.

In 2005, in a gesture that falls under the heading, "no good deed goes unpunished," Israel gave the Gaza strip to the Palestinians, uprooting thousands of Jewish settlers in the process. What did they get in return? The rise of Hamas, whose charter called for the annihilation of the Jewish State, after it defeated the PLO, and assumed control of Gaza in 2007. More than 8,000 missiles shot across the border into Israeli towns since 2009, including more than 800 this year alone. For those of you unburdened by a public school education, that comes to just over two missiles per day, seven days a week, 365 day a year. The reaction of the international community to this ongoing atrocity? Zero, zip, nada. Why? When you cut through all the b.s., the answer is simple: the elitist, "enlightened" thinkers of the world can't possibly hold the Palestinians to the same standard of civilized behavior they demand from every other society, save one: Israel.

Israel is held to the highest standard of all, meaning that a couple of missiles lobbed their way on a daily basis is no reason to get excited. Don't believe it? Here is, by far, the stupidest question asked by a journalist this year, yet it provides invaluable insight as to what animates the worldview of the "deeper' thinkers. MSNBC host Mara Schiavocampo, in an interview with Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren posed this stunner:

"Living under the threat of rocket attack is certainly a psychological trauma. But what would you say to those who argue that the rockets are essentially very ineffective, they rarely do damage and that the response from Israelis is disproportional to the threat they're under?"

I'll tell ya what I'd say, Mara. I'd say maybe it's time MSNBC set up shop in Israel, in one of those border towns, like Ashkelon. If you and your colleagues have children, maybe you could send them to the school that was hit by a Grad rocket lobbed across the border in November. It didn't kill anyone, so no harm, no foul, right? I'm betting a few days of living under conditions where much of life consists of never forgetting where the nearest bomb shelter is, might give that word "disproportional" some genuine meaning.

Or not. Those who live in a world of moral equivalency, where Hamas thuggery and Israeli efforts to blunt it are two sides of the same coin, are willfully oblivious to such realities. Thus, for the umpteenth time, the following formula will be followed:

1. Hamas perpetrates terror until Israel reaches a breaking point

2. Israel responds with surgical strikes

3. The Hamas death toll mounts, due in large part to the reality that they put their ordinance among the civilian population

4. Any ramp up of Israeli military action triggers the International Community's condemnation of Israel's "disproportionate response"

5. Israel backs off, and a "truce" is secured.

6. The International Community stops paying attention

7. Hamas resumes firing missiles into Israel, and the whole cycle begins all over again

The only element that remains absolutely off the table? Victory. Israel must never be allowed to completely eliminate Hamas's capacity to launch missiles at Israeli men, women and children. That, above all else, is the sacred status quo that must never, ever be breached under any circumstances. In other words, the end game here comes down to one question: according to the "ethical" standards of the International Community, what is the "acceptable" number of Hamas missile launches Israel must endure in order to achieve peace?

Back to you, Mara.