Egging Hamas On

Note to John Kerry: If America is serious about protecting innocent Palestinians, get your State Department to stop encouraging Hamas to use them as human shields. This was the inadvertent effect of spokeswoman Jen Psaki’s remarks Sunday. Psaki condemned as “disgraceful” the shelling near a UN school — and declared that the “suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of so many innocent civilians.”

True, she also admonished Hamas that schools “should not be used as bases from which to launch attacks.”

But by categorically ruling out any justification for returning fire from enemies using these areas to shoot from, State confirmed to Hamas that its strategy is working, and signaled that if Hamas wishes to keep fighting, this is the best way to do it.

Hamas knows it is no match for Israeli arms. That’s why it has chosen to drag the Jewish state into the ugliest kind of fighting — urban warfare — where civilian casual ties are guaranteed. It hopes that by doing so, Israel is put into an impossible predicament: accept the rockets and terrorist tunnels, or pay a huge price in moral and international credibility when Palestinian innocents are killed in the crossfire.

Amid the bloody fighting, our State Department seems to have lost sight of this simple fact: The primary cause of civilian deaths, Palestinian and Israeli, has been Hamas’ commitment to terrorism.

When Hamas took over Gaza, its leaders had an opportunity to show what they could do for the Palestinian people. Instead, they used the Palestinian people to shield the tunnels and rockets they used to rain terror on the Israelis.

This week, a ceasefire took effect as Israel withdrew its forces and claimed it had achieved its “main mission” — the destruction of Hamas’ rockets and tunnels.

Let’s hope so. And let’s hope State recognizes Hamas will never abandon its vile tactic of hiding behind innocent civilians so long as we send the signal it’s working.