You walk into a restaurant at 6:55 p.m. in anticipation of your 7 p.m. date. When 7:10 p.m. approaches, there is no sign of your date. And when you cautiously pick up the phone to call, there is no answer. You wait a little longer and call again. Someone picks up the phone, and within a mere second, the call is ended.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been sitting at the table waiting for his “date,” but Hamas has not responded. According to the Wall Street Journal, Egypt first proposed a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas on July 15.
Although Israel and Netanyahu agreed to the terms of the cease- fire and halted rocket attacks for six hours, the leading governing body of Gaza, Hamas, chose to decline the offer and continued firing rockets indiscriminately.
Gaza militants have fired more than 2,200 rockets at Israel over the past 20 days, according to The New York Times. The current tension between Israel and Gaza was heightened after three Israeli boys were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists on June 12, and Israeli extremists in Jerusalem retaliated by murdering a Palestinian boy.
Immediately, while Israeli officials condemned and incarcerated the aggressors, Hamas operatives responded to the deaths and the grief of the Israeli government by firing more rockets into Israel, The Guardian reported.
Israel has taken the necessary precautions to avoid civilian casualties by informing the citizens of Gaza of impending strikes on terrorist structures through leaflets, phone calls and text messages while also offering medical services and fixing a power plant in Gaza destroyed by Hamas’s own rockets, according to The Huffington Post.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, explained that “the policy of people confronting the Israeli war planes with their bare chests in order to protect their homes has proven effective against the occupation [Israel].”
While the death of any civilian is far from desirable, Hamas has military command centers and firing locations in and very close to mosques, hospitals, schools and homes.
A second cease-fire was established by the United Nations on July 17, but, according to The Guardian, Hamas continued to rain down rockets into Israel just two hours after it began.
Israel then launched a ground operation into Gaza to destroy the tunnels that Hamas operatives have been using to infiltrate Israel and store rockets.
Israel has established underground bomb shelters and uses the iron dome system to protect its citizens, which, according to Fox News, has had a 90 percent success rate in shooting down incoming rockets.
There have been multiple opportunities for discussing peace. Netanyahu has proven and stated multiple times his desire for peace, something seen this past weekend.
Netanyahu initiated a 24-hour humanitarian cease-fire in cooperation with a lagging Palestinian government that continued to fire rockets up until early Sunday afternoon.
The table at the restaurant is set. Your partner is sitting at the other side of the table waiting for you. Will you take the seat or ignore the call?
[Ari Bister and Brandon Harris are two UF freshmen who led the Israeli Crisis Awareness Week from July 14-18. This article was co-written by Jonah Stein, the executive vice president of the Jewish Student Union and the director of communications for Gators for Israel. A version of this story ran on page 7 on 7/29/2014 under the headline "Hamas won't respond to Israel plea for peace"]
