BAD BEHAVIOR SIMPLY EXPLAINED

Evelyn Gordon at Commentary has the explanation for Hamas' escalating violence during 'peace talks'--and it isn't the explanation of conventional 'wisdom' put forth by our politicians:

Israel has suffered almost daily rocket and mortar fire from Hamas-run Gaza this week after 19 months of quiet. Yesterday, for the first time, Gazans launched phosphorus shells at the Negev. And Hamas has twice attacked Israelis in the West Bank this month, again following a long hiatus.

The response from American, European, and Israeli officials has been predictable: Hamas is escalating the terror to foil Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. But this conventional wisdom is false. And this falsehood has been undermining prospects for peace for the last 17 years.

Hamas does oppose a peace deal. But because almost nobody in either Israel or the Palestinian Authority thinks the current talks will produce one, the idea that Hamas leaders are driven by fear of the talks’ success is risible. Hamas knows quite well that the talks will fail even without its help....

So what really motivates Hamas? It’s no secret; Hamas officials proclaim it repeatedly: their goal is Israel’s eradication, and their method is armed struggle. Therefore, they will attack whenever and wherever it’s feasible.

Viewed through this prism, the pattern of Hamas’s terror activity is easily explained: terror escalates whenever Hamas officials think they can get away with it and de-escalates when the danger of a devastating Israeli response becomes too great.

Read it all.

And why is that they think they can get away with this behavior? Because they know that if Israel retaliates during any so-called 'peace negotiations', that ISRAEL will be blamed for everything and Hamas will get off scott free simply because the international community, including America, will let them. That's how it's always worked in the past and it is no different now--in fact, it is much easier to get away with it as the Obama Administration has publicly made known its hostility to Israel.

The conclusion: In short, it’s not the peace talks that cause terror to escalate but the world’s insistence that Israel refrain from responding so as not to “disrupt” them. And by taking this attitude, the world has effectively made “peace” synonymous with stepped-up terror.

For Hamas, it's a win-win situation. They get to kill Israelis AND they get International condemnation of Israel should Israel decide to retaliate.

Rewarding bad behavior always causes that behavior to escalate...any good parent or teacher can tell you that--of course, when it is a child it is one thing; when it's a terrorist organization, it's another....