Give War a Chance! By Michael I. Krauss and J. Peter Pham

Two items in the batch of international news and commentary at the end of last week strike us as particularly noteworthy, justifying our recall in a new context of the title of P.J. O'Rourke's book.

First, as the extremely well-connected Debka reports, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has now built up an army of up to 13,000 trained men in Gaza. Not only are these fighters well-armed with anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, they are literally awash in explosives. Apparently, in the month since it drove off partisans of the rival Fatah faction, Hamas has imported 20 tons of explosives through the wide open Philadelphi border crossing with Egypt. In comparison, until the Israeli pullout from Gaza two years ago, Hamas struggled to smuggle an estimated four tons per year! Hamas fighters are also now equipped with upgraded Katyusha rockets, more lethal and accurate than the primitive Qassams that Hamas has been lobbing onto Israeli civilians (most recently on Thursday, July 19, when four civilians were injured by a Qassam falling on a residential street in the Israeli town of Sderot). Hundreds of Hamas fighters have crossed at Philadelphi for training courses in Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. In short, unless it is stopped immediately, Hamas will soon have the means commensurate with its will to inflict terrible damage on Israeli soldiers and civilians.

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