Cease/Fire!

Over the weekend Israel announced a unilateral cease-fire. Hamas initially maintained it would continue its attacks, then switched gears and said it would suspend them for a few days.

Few observers hold out much hope that the cease-fire will last long, and for good reason: As Hamas leader Khaled Meshal said not long ago, a cease-fire is merely "a tactic in conducting the struggle [against Israel]. Hamas is known for that." Hamas might have switched tactics, but it has not changed its ultimate goal one iota. It still lusts for Israel's annihilation.

Israel's inadvertent killing of innocent Palestinians, particularly children, is tragic. Israel certainly has gone to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties -- even leafletting areas subject to imminent attack to warn residents to flee. Naturally, the terrorists who use civilians as cover take the opportunity to flee as well.

The civilian deaths have led to predictable denunciations of Israel's response to terror as "disproportionate" and, in some cases, as constituting war crimes. Hamas' intentional targeting of civilians produces no equivalent denunciations.

Neither has the fact that Israel's enemies have expended such tremendous time and energy on Israel's destruction rather than their own prosperity. During the past seven years Palestinian terrorists have lobbed more than 100,000 rockets into Israel. Imagine how much better off the Palestinian people would be today if Hamas had spent the energy it expended on weapons on importing classroom computers, fostering microcredit, and conducting small-business workshops.

Peace will come to the Mideast when the Palestinians want peaceful, prosperous, happy lives more than they want to kill Jews. Until then, cease-fires will last only so long as it takes for Israel's enemies to reload.