It is quite clear that in the short term, Qassams benefit Israel more than they benefit the Hamas. From an internal perspective, Israel cannot deliver on peace, therefore it is far more convenient to continue managing this low-intensity conflict, business as usual.
This assessment must be reconsidered however when looking at the situation not only from the Hamas perspective, but from the larger Palestinian cause perspective and over the long term. While Israel may eventually succeed in bombing the Hamas to silence, the threat of Palestinian demographic expansion will loom ever larger over the Jewish nature of the Israeli state.
While Israel`s allies will never have a problem with Israel responding harshly to violent aggression, the only way to defuse the internal demographic threat will be to take increasingly unpopular measures restricting the civil rights for the residents of occupied territories. That is where the long-term threat resides. |
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