If you think Hamas wants to destroy Israel, you are mistaken.
Hamas wants to slaughter civilians. Period. End of story.
It wants, if the Israeli government has the "intestinal fortitude," to commit political suicide by forcing Israel to take over Gaza. (This time there is no Arial Sharon to give it back until it has been disarmed and a responsible government installed.)
Either that or its leaders are imbeciles, and that is well within the realm of probability.
My logic?
I'm not a career military planner, but if I wanted to get rid of Israel I would NOT go about it by firing rockets at civilians. That's just making the people angry and causing them to demand (at last) that Gaza once more be under Israeli military control (and damn the bleeding heart liberals who will gnash their teeth and wail about "occupation").
Israel is a "revolving door" nation.
It imports raw materials.
Does something with those raw materials.
Exports a finished product.
Add under the import/export category "tourists." Tourists are hardly "raw materials," but they are a major source of income for the country.
All the imports and exports go through ports.
Ashdod (sea)
Ashkelon (sea)
Eilat (air and sea).
Hadera (sea)
Haifa (air and sea)
Lod (air)
Ovda (air)
Shut down the ports NOTE BOTTOM and you almost completely isolate Israel from the world. Israel still would have access, albeit inconvenient access, to the world via Egypt and Jordan.
It's pretty clear that the "fearless leaders" behind Hamas - and Hezbollah in the north - are interested in murdering civilians and not, as they and the PA leadership proclaim, in destroying Israel.
Add to that the terrorists Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of installing rocket launchers in residential areas, of using their own civilians as shields against Israeli counter-attacks and it becomes clear that the goal is not Israel's destruction but population reduction.
Hamas doesn't even target military installations - army, navy, and air force bases. No, it saves its missiles for civilian targets.
If Israel "went away" tomorrow - and G-d willing will be it remain until the mashiach arrives - Hamas, the PA, Hezbollah, et al, could have little or no reason to exist, so the reality of it all is that the terrorists need Israel to keep money flowing into the leadership's pockets.
NOTE: When I worked for Tadiran in Holon, customs clerks went on strike. Nothing came into the country; nothing left the country. Tadiran, a huge, multi-division company, would have laid off 20% of its workforce if the strike continued beyond a specific date. Fortunately for me and other Tadiran employees, the strike was settled and we had no strike-related layoffs.
