Hamas: Villagers With Guns?

"Israel Lets Reporters See Devastated Gaza Site and Image of a Confident Military"
A12, Friday 1/16/09
By Ethan Bronner

This is primarily from the perspective of the Israeli military and there are several good points highlighted.

Houses, mosques and farm fields have been turned into rocket launching pads directed at Israel. A few of Hamas’ urban warfare tricks are detailed.

Still, there are problems:

It’s not made clear what constitutes “a day of unusually harsh Israeli attacks.” Also, could Hamas’ unusually harsh war strategy be responsible?

Why is it relevant that Brig. Gen. Avi Ronzki, “the military’s chief rabbi,” is also a “West Bank settler”? While Bronner might grab the reader’s attention with this, he doesn’t indulge. Is Ronzki a hilltop person? Is he from a big community, like in the Etzion bloc? Does he believe Judea and Samaria have been divinely ordained to the Jews? Does he run errands carrying an oozy?

“Israel says” its Gaza operation is to stop rocket attacks. At this point, do we still need to attribute this obvious goal to “Israel says”?

One passage is worth exploring:

“Colonel Herzi said [he and his men] had grown increasingly less impressed with the Hamas fighters themselves.”

“They are villagers with guns,” said Sergeant Almog, a gunner on an armored personnel carrier. “They don’t even aim when they shoot.”

Hamas has been widely documented to now be a well-trained fighting force – with many commanders training under the Revolutionary Guard. Palestinian villagers have in the past been given guns to serve as “resistance” to Israel operations. Did the Israeli colonel and the sergeant speak specifically about Hamas fighters (which was the phrasing Bronner chose) or people who were more like “villagers with guns”?"

Demonstrating that Hamas is really not the formidable force as so described would help enforce a frequent narrative of “disproportionate force” and foster misunderstanding of Israeli security.