How Hamas can have the Gaza blockade lifted: Leave Gaza.

With Hamas ending the cease fire by resuming the firing of rockets into Israel  as a result of Israel refusing to meet it's demands and the Israeli delegation leaving Cairo, negotiations which never had a chance in the first place are at an end.

The conventional wisdom in the current Israeli-Palestinian-Hamas conflict is that it's a complicated situatation. Conventional wisdom is never wise, precisely because its conventional and almost always misses the point, the simple and the obvious. And it does again.

The demand that Hamas has made is that Israel lift the blockade and border crossings that it put in place in 2007 after Hamas used those crossings to send human bombers into Israel to blow up buses, restarants, hotel dining rooms to kill Israeli civilians. They killed 1400 Israelis and wounded thousands more.

The sea blockade is to keep Hamas from being resupplied with rockets by Iran. The Egyptian border closing is to keep Hamas and Palestinians out of Egypt which the government there has always considered a threat and to keep Hamas from importing material that can be used for offensive purposes into Gaza.

It should be noted the UN has said the sea blockade is legitimate, legal and appropriate under international law.

Which makes the whole issue pretty simple. If Hamas really cares about the Palestinians in Gaza, if they really want them to be able to resume a more normal life and engage in trade and be able to freely enter into Israel, Hamas can get everything it wants for the Palestinians in Gaza. All they have to do is leave. As in lay  down their arms, let Israel or international monitors go in and destroy the rest of their rockets, then get out.

No Hamas, no rockets, no tunnels, no human bombers, no problem. The borders open, the blockade lifts, security forces from the Palestinian Authority and perhaps other international peace keepers prevents Hamas and the other terrorist groups like Islamic Jihad from returning and rearming  and things in Gaza get back to normal.

Its not complicated at all. Its simple. And easy. And there's precedent.  It wouldn't be the first time a ruler or a government stepped down for the good of its people. Even the Pope resigned when he thought he could no longer be effective.

But the Palestinians and their leadership who never wants to take responsibility for anything, who began the conflict in 1948 by refusing to accept the UN resolution that created the state of Israel and instead started 5 wars and multiple terrorist attacks since, who reneged on agreements like the Oslo Accords, then claims victimhood, sees everything in reverse to suit their own purposes. 

The Palestinian chief  negotiator issued a statement saying that the rockets " would stop if Israel lifted the blockade immediately".  The reality for everyone else is that the border crossings would reopen if Hamas left immediately. Or at the very least lived up to the Oslo Agreement which required the demilitariazation of Gaza. If Hamas is no longer a threat, the borders would reopen. When the Palestinian negotiators figure that out, then progress can be made. Not before.

 That Hamas refuses to agree to leave or disarm in return for the border crossings reopening is all anyone needs to know about Hamas' true motives and goals which has nothing to do with the Palestinians in Gaza or their well being but only to use Gaza as a base for attacking Israel. No more no less. It also reveals the "it's not our fault" attitude of Palestinians and their negotiators.

 The response from the Palestinian side  to Israel's demand that Hamas give up it's weapons is that Israel has no right to demand  a soverign elected government, which Hamas is in Gaza, to give up their military capabilities. Yet the Palestinian negotiators who live in their own world,   think Hamas has a right to demand that Israel , a soverign government, do what they demand with their borders and who Israel lets in to its own country. This is why the Palestinians are in the same place they've been for decades -- starting wars, losing them,  then making one sided demands -- also ignoring that Hamas is a terrorist organization who has no rights, moral standing or legitimacy.

Which is why Hamas could care less about civilian casualties most of whom, except for the children of Gaza, are supporters of Hamas and their actions anyway, have allowed their homes to be used to store rockets, build rockets, and launch rockets at Israel and allowed their homes to be used to dig the tunnels that Hamas planned to use  to attack Israeli civilians, something the news media chooses to ignore and why many homes were destroyed. And when it comes to children, there is an independent report by the Institute For Palestinian Studies, that documented in 2012 that Hamas used Palestinian children, clearly with the permission and support of their parents, to initially dig the attack tunnels until the tunnels were large enough for adults to continue the work. In the process, according to the report from the Institute For Palestinian Studies,  160 Palestinian children were killed digging those tunnels.  That is who Hamas is, that is who many of the Palestinians in Gaza are who let their children be used to dig tunnels to kill Israelis and their children and what the Israelis are dealing with. 

The demilitarization of Gaza, which is another way of saying de-fanging and declawing Hamas,  is non-negotiable for Israel and everyone knows it. And is provided for in the Oslo Accords. Except it seems Palestinian negotiators think that there is only the obligation for one side to live up to agreements and it isnt the Palestinians continuing to  ignore the requirements in the Oslo Accords. 

As long as the military wing of Hamas is armed and remains in Gaza there will be no lifting of anything. Except maybe lifting of the fascade Hamas uses that ending the blockade has anything to do with a better life for Palestinians in Gaza.

If Hamas wants the borders reopened and the sea blockade lifted, they could get it immediately.All they have to do is leave Gaza. And not let the door hit them on the way out.