Who's Really to Blame for the War in Gaza?

THE general impression in America is that the most recent round of fighting in Gaza got started when Israel retaliated for a major ramp-up in rocket launches by Hamas this year, with a crescendo in October. "What did Hamas hope to gain from this latest round of fighting, which it started with a barrage of about 150 rockets into Israel? To formally translate Hamas’s recent strategic gains into a new, more favorable status quo with Israel," writes Charles Krauthammer. A New York Times editorial during the thick of the fighting said Hamas was "so consumed with hatred for Israel that it has repeatedly resorted to violence, no matter the cost to its own people. Gaza militants have fired between 750 to 800 rockets into Israel this year before Israel assassinated one of its senior leaders last week and began its artillery and air campaigns." And so forth. This is the received wisdom on the American side of the Atlantic.