“Stones of Baked Clay” vs. “Pillar of Cloud”

For a few days Hamas militants continues to fire rockets from the Gaza Strip not only to the Southern part of Israel, but also make attempts to hit Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Hundreds of rockets have been already fired, some of which hit the target. Even though the count of those killed and injured is in Israel’s favor, air-raid sirens are often heard in its cities.

In response, Israeli air forces strike pinpoint blows on Hamas missile launching sites, destroy warehouses storing missiles and other weapons. Gaza has practically lost electrical power, while most of the transformer substations have been destroyed.

On November 14 Israel has launched the operation “Pillar of Cloud” in Gaza, which began with the destruction of Ahmad Jabari, the actual leader of the military operations of the Palestinian militant movement. In response, Hamas declared that Israel “opened the gates of hell” and began missile fire.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – Tzahal like to use quotes from the Scriptures to name their operations. Those familiar with the Scripture would easily understand the meaning of the name “Pillar of Cloud.” According to the book of Exodus, God himself appeared in the form of a pillar of cloud before Jews and accompanied them during their wandering in the desert. Hamas also names its operations with the quotations from Muslims scripture. Its current war against Israel is called “Stones of Baked Clay.” According to the Qur’an, Allah turned the Ethiopian army who invaded Mecca into dust with such stones. Perhaps, Islamists think of their missiles that hit Israel towns as such “stones of baked clay.”

We must pay tribute to Israeli intelligence. They not only found out the places of missiles storage, the initial placement of missile launchers, but also knew about the location of command points, as well as the headquarters of militants. Usually they stay in schools, hospitals, or near mosques. The common tactics of terrorists is to hide behind civilians. Of course, they are the ones who die first from the air strikes even if they were fired with surgical precision. Shortly before the Israeli air operation leaflets were scattered over Gaza warning the civilians about the bombing and asking them to leave the area. But Hamas did not allow people to leave as they would only benefit from the larger numbers of dead and wounded when they would present it to the international community.

However, the rebels also suffered casualties. In the Southern part of Gaza air strikes killed a prominent Hamas military leader Osama Kadi – he was responsible for smuggling weapons through tunnels. Air strikes also resulted in elimination of the head of the military wing of Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza Abu Awad. His deputy and the commander of the Popular Resistance Committee in the Southern Gaza Strip Khaled Shaath were also killed.

Although, both parties say that they are ready to cease fire and to call a truce, there are no signs of an early ceasefire. Israel demands that Hamas stops firing rockets and missile production and that Egypt ensures that the supply of weapons into Gaza would be stopped. Hamas is ready to stop the fire only if Israel would stop liquidation of militants and would raise the blockade of Gaza.

Experts say that the main reason for the outbreak of hostilities in Gaza is the approach of parliamentary elections in Israel and the desire of the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his party “Likud” to increase its representation in parliament on a wave of success in the confrontation with Hamas. Undoubtedly, there is such a plan, but this is only the situation of the moment. The causes for the current conflict are much more profound.

We have the rare case when all the parties of the conflict – both those participating in it directly and those, who played their role behind the scene, were interested in starting the war.

Note that in the late October the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani visited Gaza. Experts considered that the Emir came to finally dissociate Hamas from Iran and Syria. This could be true, however, this does not explain the relatively high level of the visit. After all, drift, and the most recent fleeing of Hamas from Iran is an accomplished fact. The only real source of money for the organization are monarchies of the Persian Gulf, in this case Qatar stands in vanguard. It is very likely that during the visit the parties discussed the possibility of returning Hamas the role in the region, which it had lost during the conflict in Syria. The only way to again loudly declare about their position and show that the Qatari money are not simply cut and stolen but are used for real matters is, of course, to start a hot conflict with Israel.

Monarchies of the Persian Gulf also do not mind to set the Egyptian leadership up by using Hamas. Cairo can not just stay away from the actions of the militants and the Israeli response. Hamas is practically a close relative of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. And they have already expressed their support to the fellow Muslims. Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi can not ignore this. On the other hand, he simply can’t afford to engage in a real confrontation with Israel for the interests of Hamas. First, the Egyptian Army, though very large, is completely incapable of fighting with the Israel Army. And the generals would not advise to get involved in a real conflict with Israel.

Second, they would not be able to count on the assistance of the United States in this. And the funds from overseas are needed as a breath of air for the completely unbalanced Egyptian economy.

Third, the goals of the Gulf monarchies regarding Egypt in Cairo are perfectly clear. Egyptian leaders are aware that in such a way they try to get rid of, at least for a short time, the country that claims to be the leader of the Arab world. Why should Egyptians pull the chestnuts out of fire for the emirs. Egyptian leadership would, most likely, do what they usually do. They would angrily condemn Israel, would try to mediate, but they wouldn’t do anything more than that.

Another strategic goal of the monarchies as masterminds and financiers of Hamas is Syria. At the present time Damascus and events in this country have disappeared from the screens and front pages of newspapers. But the situation in the country has not improved. It is quite the contrary, in such informational silence it is much easier to solve big problems. Iran can not stand aside and shall, if it does not want to blemish its reputation, provide financial support to Hamas. Tehran is torn apart by this. It has enough problems inside the country. Its position in Iraq became complicated, Syria demands more and more, and now they’ve also got Hamas to worry about. This can get their head spinning. Even though, it is not explicitly written anywhere, but the flash of confrontation in Gaza is a direct continuation of Syrian conflict.

Israel has its reasons. Elections and undermining the militants infrastructure – these are the most urgent goals. It is more significant that Israel is able to demonstrate its military superiority over not so much the militants, but over Iran. Although, the severity of the Iranian nuclear program has somewhat decreased, the issue is still on the agenda, only postponed. Demonstration of the combat capabilities of the IDF aircraft and professionalism of pilots, as well as possession of high-precision weapons also present an unambiguous warning to Iran. Even if Washington does not support it, Israel would be able to solve the problem of bombing Iranian nuclear facilities on its own. And in Gaza Israel forces practice the techniques of bombing underground facilities, this time it is the tunnels for delivering weapons from Egypt.

Now, all parties will fight to the end. Hamas will cease the fire only in two cases. Either they will run out of missiles, or Israeli Army will start ground campaign. Israel will stop after Hamas accepts its pretty severe conditions. Therefore, for at least a few more days missiles and aircrafts will be flying and people will be dying. Nothing can be done when great politics is involved.