President Obama has dispatched his special Middle East envoy George Mitchell to once again attempt the impossible. Mitchell said he would “vigorously push for peace” insisting that Hamas stops doing what they have always done and also insisting that Israel stops trying to protect itself from Hamas doing it.

The latest failure of the cease fire was brought about by Hamas when they once again planted bombs that killed another Israeli soldier. In response Israel took the logical step of sending in their superior military to answer force with force by bombing the well established system of tunnels Hamas has developed to smuggle in weapons.

After recently decimated Hamas in Gaza with three weeks of attacks and inflicting approximately $2 billion in damages Israel was under enormous international pressure to end their military strikes. The U.N. insisted that Israel cease fire and theorized that Hamas had come to the realization that they could not defend themselves against the Israeli army. Israel relented but a week later Hamas decided that they’d had enough peace and concluded that there is no sense in smuggling in weaponry if you’re not going to kill somebody with it.

It unfortunately comes as no real surprise as it was only hours after the end of hostilities with the smoke still rising from the bombed out buildings in Gaza that Hamas fighters were first seen waving their green Islamic flags and declaring victory over Israel. While it is impossible to understand this level of warped reality in the Hamas mentality (or lack thereof) it is fairly easy to predict. Just consider the most ill-advised thing that they could do and you can pretty much bet the farm that Hamas will do it or is at least planning it.

It reminds me of a fable I heard years ago about the frog and the scorpion: A frog was sitting on the bank of a river preparing to swim to the other side when a scorpion approached and asked if he could hitch a ride on the frogs back. The frog said “Are you crazy? You’re a scorpion; you will sting me and kill me if I let you get on my back”. The scorpion replied “Be realistic! I am not going to do that! If I sting you we would both drown.” The frog realizing the scorpion had made a good point agreed to let him ride across the river. The frog had swum about half way across when he suddenly felt the scorpion’s stinger pierce deep into his back. “Why” said the frog as the toxic sting began to take effect. “Now you’re going to die too”. To which the scorpion replied “I can’t help it, it’s who I am”.

Mitchell fresh off his lobbying efforts to vigorously push for peace in favor of the tobacco industry is now trying to broker a deal with the scorpion named Hamas. Having been a Washington DC lobbyist working for Big Tobacco certainly prepared him to deal with some fairly undesirable characters but the relationship most of the Middle East states have with the radical factions of Islam is impossible to overcome.

Hamas is being supported by the same governments that support Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation. As Mitchell returns to Washington to discuss his meetings with our new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton he will simply be reciting the Clinton Foundation mailing list.

This initial foray of Mitchell’s will offer America the first glimpse of the new mindset in the oval office toward Israel. The Bush administration developed the “road map” for peace which Israel abided by and Hamas did not. While George W publicly called for restraint on the part of Israel his administration was unwavering in its support. Obama promised that same unwavering support during the campaign, as did Clinton. We will now see if this support is also part of the change he promised.

Hamas will never willingly live in peace with Israel.

They can’t help it.

It’s who they are.

At least that’s how the saying goes. It’s an expression that has been used by pacifists for years. “Make Love Not War” they cry. But have you ever noticed that the ones chanting these tired slogans are usually hundreds or thousands of miles away from the actual conflict?

Random acts of violence usually solve nothing, but random acts of violence are rarely if ever meant to solve anything. Strategically planned and executed violence often does bring about a solution. Anybody who says otherwise hasn’t paid attention very well in history class.

The current headlines scream that the ongoing military action being undertaken by Israel against Hamas in the Gaza strip is overkill (no pun intended). “Israel’s Attack Disproportionate” they say and use pictures of poor civilians and children killed or wounded in the airstrikes as proof of their claim.

To be sure, the sight of bleeding and dead children with their parents weeping at their side is horrific. But war is horrific business. There are no clean wars. By its very nature the purpose of a trained military is to kill people and break things and the purpose of military action is to kill enough of the enemy and break enough of their equipment to vanquish their will if not their physical ability to fight. It is not the military’s job to teach anybody a lesson, although the lesson is usually learned by the time the military is done.

The U.S. dropping nuclear bombs on Japan has long been viewed as disproportionate in its targeting of civilians but to anybody paying attention it ended the war with Japan in a matter of days. The ghastly pictures of human devastation and the years of radioactive health issues have prevented further use of these weapons of mass destruction. But the reality is that it was an extreme act of violence that did indeed bring resolution.

I am neither Jewish, nor do I feel any particular special support for Israel. But I am a supporter of any free democratic country that finds its very existence threatened by Islamic sects whose sole purpose in life is to kill its citizens. Israel has been warning these Islamic fascists for months that if they did not stop the daily mortar attacks on Israeli towns and citizens it would retaliate. Their warnings were ignored. They are not being ignored now.

As the death toll climbs toward 500 the news media is quick to report the number of civilian deaths. The deaths of the innocent are always tragic and even though civilian deaths account for only about 20% of the total it is no less heartbreaking. The reason the civilian deaths are even that high is that these Islamic warmongers set up their mortar launchers in civilian neighborhoods and around schools. The “civilian” adults are guilty of complicity with the uniformed Hamas fighters. There is no military and non-military zone. It’s all military zone.

As the major concern in the news media and with other Muslim countries seems to be a disproportionate response by Israel, let me ask the million dollar question: What exactly is an appropriate response to daily mortar attacks on Israeli civilians? What is an appropriate response to suicide bombers trained and equipped by Hamas to blow up civilian buses and marketplace shoppers? What is an appropriate response to a terrorist organization that has repeatedly stated their sole mission in life is to destroy Israel?

This extreme level of Muslim terror is not limited to Gaza or the Palestinian held territories. It exists and is growing in Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Somalia, Uganda and Jordan to name only a few. Muslim terror cells are expanding in just about every country on every continent. The news media continues to misidentify the threat by stating that actions like the one taken by Israel will embolden these terrorists. Make no mistake; they are already bold enough to attack the United States. And that is as bold as it gets. Ask Japan how that worked out for them.

And then ask them about violence solving nothing.