TEL AVIV — Speaking in a radio interview, Aaron Klein, Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief, offered his analysis on the escalation from the Gaza Strip prompted by unprovoked rocket attacks on Israel.
Besides the general goal of attacking the Jewish state, Klein dissected Hamas’s other possible motivations for launching rockets toward central Israel. The rocket attacks come at the height of an Israeli election campaign and just days after Hamas violently cracked down on protests inside Gaza spotlighting the coastal enclaves faltering economy. Those demonstrations evidenced anti-Hamas undertones.
Klein was speaking Wednesday morning on the Joe Piscopo Show on New York’s AM 970 The Answer.
Listen to the full interview here (Klein’s segment begins at the 21:45 mark):
The Breitbart reporter stated:
Why is Hamas doing this? What are they trying to gain here? First, you look at what has been happening in the Gaza Strip over the course of the last few years. Remember that Israel evacuated Gaza unilaterally in 2005 in hopes of creating peace. Hamas took over. Hamas has not been very good at ruling Gaza and the Palestinian public is sort of growing sick of it. In fact actually there were protests – and I think this really spooked Hamas – protests against the Hamas terrorist government in Gaza over the last few weeks.
Could this be Hamas understanding that the people are very angry in Gaza and (Hamas is) trying instead to channel that anger, as they sometimes do, toward Israel?
Also I know that Hamas has been for over a year now orchestrating these riots along the Israel-Gaza border and Hamas has achieved nothing from this at all. So I think they need an achievement and they know that right now they have a window of about two weeks where they can fire rockets into Israel and, they believe at least, that the Israeli Prime Minister is going to be restrained because they know that he cannot afford or that it will be very difficult for him electorally to send ground troops into Gaza and maybe have casualties. So Hamas might be understanding that there is a small window to get away with something.
Klein reminded listeners that “when terrorists fire rockets from Gaza these are not laser-guided missiles hitting military targets which within itself would obviously not be legitimate. These are rockets fired indiscriminately into Israeli cities. Toward Tel Aviv. North of Tel Aviv. Toward the Israeli communities near Gaza.”
This week’s violence began on Monday morning when a Gaza terror rocket scored a direct hit on an Israeli home north of Tel Aviv wounding seven people, including three children. The attack prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut his trip to Washington short as the Israel Defense Forces carried out surgical strikes targeting Hamas facilities, deployed two additional brigades to the Gaza border area and called up reservists.
The IDF said that Hamas was behind the rocket fire. Monday’s attack came after two rockets were launched at Tel Aviv earlier this month , with Hamas officials claiming those projectiles were fired by mistake.
Tuesday saw a large volley of terror rockets plummet Israeli communities near Gaza as Israeli aircraft continued retaliatory surgical strikes against Hamas terror installations.
Wednesday has been mostly calm amid unconfirmed reports that an unofficial cease fire agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas via Egyptian mediation.
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