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Source: https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/a-short-war-in-gaza/
Lessons from a Short War in Gaza
(American Enterprise Institute) Danielle Pletka - After the three-day war between U.S.-designated terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Israel, we learn that the fate of "Palestine" is in the hands of the most extreme elements in Palestinian politics. Hamas, the terror group that controls Gaza, has been hard put to govern; its popularity has shrunk as the group has failed to deliver any tangible improvements. Hamas blames the Jews; Hamas' subjects are quietly unsure whether the Jews are to blame, or just Hamas. They don't dare say so. Palestinian Islamic Jihad has been behind a continual stream of killings in recent years, and its sponsors in Iran have been pleased. As a result, the Israeli government decided to take out PIJ's top two leaders. Tehran's efforts to elevate PIJ should not go unnoticed in Washington. Iran is not interested in the fate of Palestine; it is interested in the eradication of Israel. That's why concentrating only on nuclear Iran, and not on terrorist Iran, missile-proliferating Iran, human rights-denying Iran, is a mistake. Here's the bottom line: It won't matter how much land Israel gives up, because Palestinian maximalists own the decision-making, and they and their sponsors' goal is the destruction of Israel. The writer is a senior fellow in foreign and defense policy studies at AEI.