Israel basked in a series of seeming triumphs this past week. It began with performer Netta Barzilai winning the Eurovision Song Contest on May 12, continued with the inauguration of the US Embassy in Jerusalem two days later and ended with the army repelling tens of thousands of Palestinian protesters who stormed the Gaza border fence, all without incurring Israeli casualties. The killing of dozens of Arabs and wounding of thousands of others did not prevent masses of jubilant Israelis from gathering on Rabin Square in Tel Aviv to celebrate their singer's victory. After all, are we Israelis to blame that Hamas sent its people to kill Israelis? Israel Defense Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis' message that Hamas was the one “killing Gaza” gets across, and how. Some 83% of Jewish Israelis support the IDF’s live fire policy on the Gaza border.

So what if South Africa recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv, and Belgium lodged a protest with the Israeli ambassador in Brussels? Who cares that Turkey expelled Israel’s ambassador? As long as the frenetic American president supports us and we have a bunch of loopy evangelists on our side, Israelis do not mind the Europeans paying lip service to the Palestinians. A year from now, they will all be sending their contestants to the Eurovision contest in Jerusalem, “our unified capital,” anyway.

Senior Israeli diplomats and defense officials consistently reiterate the message that Hamas is cynically using the destitute residents of Gaza as cannon fodder in a bid to extricate the movement from its diplomatic and media isolation. Indeed, the higher the casualty figures, the higher Hamas climbs in the news around the world. The headlines also point out the suffering of Gaza's children and report on alarming unemployment levels of over 40%, making it hard for Israeli representatives to hide behind arguments of self-defense.

Israeli decision-makers and analysts understand that a large number of fatalities in Gaza does not serve Israel’s interests. So why is a technological superpower like Israel unable to defend its border without directing live fire at people massing on the other side? As recently as January, Israel’s former Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, boasted that Israel had located and destroyed three tunnels Hamas had dug into Israel. “Israeli genius and the Jewish brain have found a solution for all the terrorist tunnels,” he told Arabic-language al-Hurairah TV.