The Israeli attack against Hamas continues: for the third day in a row, the IAF hit Hamas targets in Gaza in an attempt to severely weaken the terrorist organization which, Israeli leaders hope, may result in Hamas opening up to a compromise peace plan.

As of yet, Hamas shows no signs of backing down. Instead, the group’s leaders have become even more aggressive and vocal than they were. They threatened to send many, possibly dozens, suicide attackers to Israeli cities and villages where these terrorists will take their own lives and those of innocent bystanders, all in an attempt to scare Israel into submission.

Having said that, it is becoming increasingly clear that the IAF action has been rather successful thus far: the Israelis do not attempt to destroy but only to weaken Hamas. They have hit and destroyed hundreds of key Hamas centers and the group’s leaders have gone into hiding. Hamas’ infrastructure has to a very large degree been destroyed. It will take the group many months to recover from the assault, if at all.

Meanwhile, Fatah is preparing to take over from Hamas. As many may remember, Fatah ruled both the West Bank and Gaza until last year when Hamas staged a bloody coup in the latter region. Fatah members were executed en masse, tortured, thrown off of buildings, burned alive, and so on. Fatah has been longing for revenge ever since. The group’s leaders know that the Israeli operation may very well enable them to do so. When Hamas is severely weakened, wait for Fatah to move in and take over.

As such, it can be said that Fatah is rooting for Israel to win this battle and to do tremendous damage to Hamas. Although this sentiment may be logical, and from an Israeli and Western perspective desirable since Fatah is less radical than Hamas (Fatah is, in fact, a secular organization whereas Hamas is Islamist), Fatah should be careful not to express these hopes publicly: if Gazans realize that Fatah is rooting for Israel and possibly providing the Israelis with information about Hamas targets they will almost certainly object when Fatah tries to take over in January.

Meanwhile, although much has been said and written in recent days about Europe’s reaction to the Israeli offensive, many have forgotten to point out that the next leader of the EU, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, supports the Jewish nation-state. Let us realize one thing:
Hamas increased steeply the number of rockets fired at Israel since the cease-fire ended on December 19. That is not acceptable any more,” Schwarzenberg told the daily Mlada Fronta Dnes in an interview.

Interestingly, France, which is currently holding the EU presidency, criticized Israel’s attacks which may be explained by the following: France’s President Nicholas Sarkozy is a hawk but he also wants to help France play a greater role in the world and especially in the Middle East. Having a somewhat critical attitude towards Israel helps him court Arabs. It will enable him to convince them that he could be a fair moderator and negotiator.

Lastly, understanding the need for propaganda, the Israeli Defense Forces have decided to bypass the mainstream media and use the Internet to share their take on things with the world. The IDF now has a YouTube channel which is used to publish videos of precision bombings and other information “of interest to the public.”

“The blogosphere and new media are another war zone,” said IDF Foreign Press Branch head Maj. Avital Leibovich. “We have to be relevant there.”

“The intelligent audience watching the footage will know that people killed did not have peaceful intentions toward Israel,” she said explaining that the IDF was not afraid that the footage would be used against it and accomplish the opposite of what she has in mind. “I don’t believe they’ll be disturbed.”

H/t to Holly for the links.