Stand for Israel

Hamas marked its 22nd anniversary yesterday with massive rallies in the streets of Gaza City. According to  Ha’aretz, Hamas leaders had worried about turnout, concerned that public support had sagged in the face of Israel’s incursion (Operation Cast Lead) to stop rocketfire last year, but their worries proved unfounded, with crowds estimated at around 100,000.

During the rally, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya reiterated promises to obliterate Israel, promising that Hamas “will never give up on Palestine from the river to the sea,” referring to the entire area between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea: “It is not enough for Hamas to liberate Gaza, nor to establish an emirate in Gaza, nor a state, nor an independent entity. …Hamas strives to liberate all of Palestine.”

Shalit in a video released by Hamas in October

Meanwhile, the group also made clear their intentions vis a vis Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who Hamas has held hostage since the organization kidnapped him in June, 2006. In a statement released in advance of the rally, the group said “”We will not give up on them, no matter how long it takes. That is what we swore and that is our obligation, and we will not give up until every last prisoner is freed from the prisons of the occupation.”

Commentary’s Evelyn Gordon recently mocked that idea: “Hamas doesn’t actually care about any of the prisoners; what it cares about is proving that it can bend Israel completely to its will.”

After all, Israel already has capitulated nearly entirely: The Jewish State initially refused to negotiate, but then agreed to release 70 of the names on Hamas’ list. In March, it agreed to releasing 325. Now it’s agreed to releasing 400 or even 435, including terrorists held for murderous attacks.

Gordon thinks that Hamas’ real goal is showing up Fatah, its ostensibly more moderate rival that controls the West Bank. Hamas demands, she says, are intended “to prove that Hamas’s path of ‘resistance’…