In the clamor and dynamism of the recent marathon of the presidential election, there was a lot that went unnoticed. In mid-July, as then-Senator Barack Obama was traveling through the Middle East, he stopped by the Israeli town of Sderot, near the border with Gaza. At the time of his visit, Sderot had been enjoying a Palestinian cease-fire since June 19, but prior to the cease-fire had been the target of daily rocket attacks from within Gaza territory. Some days, the tiny town would receive nearly a dozen rockets of varying design or composition, and the cease-fire no doubt provided residents which some much-needed rest from their constant vigilance.Goodbye to all that. In response to an Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip designed to destroy a secret tunnel-the same sort of tunnel used to abduct Israeli Sgt. Gilad Shalit in 2006-Hamas last Tuesday fired an estimated 50 Qassam rockets, mortars and Katyushas into Israeli territory. While both Hamas and the Israeli leadership have demonstrated their preference to maintain peace, Hamas' actions represent the first real crack in the cease-fire.

Each year since it began firing rockets from Gaza, Hamas' weaponry has increased in range and in ingenuity. They don't always fire the weapons themselves, either. In the past, they have given them to other groups to do so. In addition to Sderot, there is at least one major city, Ashkelon, that resides within range of some of Hamas' missiles. These missiles rarely kill people, but that is hardly the point. They certainly cause millions of dollars in property damage, never mind the emotional impact on young children who several times a day must take cover from rockets raining down on their homes and schools.

One could go on and on about Hamas' underhanded, deceptive and deplorable tactics when it comes to its agenda in Gaza and for Israel as a whole-their outrageous demands on the Israeli government and their forcing of the Israeli Defense Forces to second-guess themselves by placing civilians between terrorists and soldiers, among others. In reality, these aspects of Hamas' policy are symptomatic of a much wider, more damaging influence. It has become increasingly clear that the problem with implementing a long-term cease-fire, at least in Gaza, is that Hamas possesses an utter disregard for the rights, lives and needs of the Palestinian people it claims to represent.

This is hardly surprising, given that Hamas' stated goal is the destruction of the state of Israel. The death of Israel is neither an attainable goal for Hamas nor would it further the cause of Palestinian statehood; were Israel to fall, the Palestinians would be left with an abysmal infrastructure and the end to one of their most abundant and reliable sources of aid. Hamas claims to care for the health and basic welfare of the people of Gaza, yet evidence suggests they have in the past gone so far as to take apart water pipes to construct "makeshift" Qassam rockets to fire into Israeli territory.

They place rocket launch sites in apartment complexes and hospitals. They claim to provide an "education" system for the youth in Gaza, but there are so many dozens of recordings of children who have been "taught" that Israel must die and that it is governed by anti-Semitic caricatures that the organization cannot be granted any concessions. Israeli students may not like Hamas or Fatah, but at least they're not dismantling their own infrastructure just to fire off a rocket or two.

Hamas is not concerned with the welfare or survival or well-being of the Palestinian people in Gaza or in the West Bank. It is concerned with gaining and holding power for itself. Hamas' tactics, then, are some of the most visible impediments to Israel's peace process with Palestine. If any peace process is to succeed, Hamas must be made irrelevant, it must be made to change, or it must be made to stop. Anything less is a disservice to the people of Gaza, of Sderot, of Palestine and of Israel.