Imagine that a relatively small group of people plunged your entire life into war. Everyday you would be forced to wonder where the missiles launchers were hiding. They could be close enough to put your entire family in the crosshairs of an adversary that had its restraint challenged on a regular basis. Your entire existence is based on moral line that the guys firing missiles outside are daring that adversary to cross. Will they or won’t they?

Now imagine you are Hamas, and you just put put everyone that is still alive through that. You better make it look like it was worth something. And you better be convincing for a lot of reasons.

Life just got a lot worse for everyone there. Schools, mosques, clinics, and any other normally protected location becomes fair game when terrorists use them for war. That means apartments that hide people or weapons can be gutted. Roads over the top of tunnels that hide launchers or bombs can go away as well. International law even lays blame on Hamas for getting civilians killed by using them as shields.

[…] forces occupying near densely populated areas must avoid locating military objectives near or in densely populated areas and endeavor to remove civilians from the vicinity of military objectives. Failure to do so would cause a higher civilian death toll resulting from bombardment by the attacking force and the defenders would be held responsible, even criminally liable, for these deaths.

So millions of dollars have to flow in from somewhere, and years are going to be needed to just get back to what existed before the conflict. The money will, of course, have to make it through lots of greedy hands before any at all makes it to the people. There has been no leverage gained over Israel beyond any misguided guilt they have no reason to feel.

The Palestinian people are just a tool to be used for money and power. The foreign politicians and celebrities claim to stand with them but don’t have to fear the bombs that were invited. There is no upside for them, and plenty of downside. But Hama has will sell them a hollow and costly “victory” because that is all they have. If the people don’t buy it, they may realize that Hamas is not helping.