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This week, Israeli warplanes pounded Hamas strongholds in the Gaza Strip. The goal of the operation is to strike a major blow to Hamas's terror infrastructure and the ability of Hamas and its allied organizations to launch missiles and mortar shells at Israeli citizens and execute terror attacks of various kinds, such as kidnapping Israeli civilians.
As casualties mount, media coverage of the fighting will form public opinion, ultimately determining Israel's ability to complete the necessary operation. Following is a quick guide to some of the big issues.
Why is Israel bombing Gaza when innocent civilians are being killed?
Israel never targets civilians. The death of innocent civilians is regrettable under any circumstances and every effort is made to avoid civilian casualties. That imperative must be balanced with the need to protect Israeli civilians, who suffer from ongoing attacks from Gaza. But while the Palestinians fire Kassam rockets indiscriminately into Israeli territory, Israel launches pinpoint strikes at Hamas infrastructure. Prior to launching any large-scale attacks, Israel spent many months identifying Hamas' strongholds and training facilities. The Israeli Air Force also managed to hit "secret" targets such as underground missile launchers and arms catches -- a testament to Israel's great effort to ensure that air strikes weaken Hamas without harming innocent Palestinians.
Israel does not want a humanitarian crisis, and Hamas is the cause of the suffering and distress of the population there.
Unfortunately, Hamas has never shown the same level of concern for either Israeli or Palestinian civilians. On one hand, Hamas has fired thousands of missiles into Israeli territory, killing and wounding hundreds.
On the other hand, rather than seeking the well-being of the Palestinians under its control in Gaza, Hamas has exploited its civilian population -- and Israel's reluctance to cause civilian casualties -- by placing non-combatants in and around areas likely to be targeted by Israel. Hamas brings women and children up to the roofs of buildings housing terrorist activity in an attempt to prevent air strikes; it sends civilians to the line of fire; it works out of schools and mosques; it fires rockets out of crowded population centers; and it sends Palestinian mothers to murder Israeli children in suicide attacks.
In addition, many of Hamas' arms smuggling tunnels are hidden beneath the homes of Palestinian civilians.
This cynical use of human shields is illegal under international law and the cause of many needless Palestinian deaths. Therefore, the responsibility for Palestinian civilian casualties lies with Hamas, not Israel.
The number of Palestinians casualties is much higher. Isn't that proof of Israeli wrongdoing?
The reason that Israel suffers less casualties is because it has a superior army, and has spent millions of dollars on civil defense infrastructure (neighborhood bomb shelters, reinforced concrete playgrounds for children, etc.).
Also, Israeli hospitals are well-equipped to handle the wounded. Not just Jews, but Gazans, too! In Ashkelon's Barzilai Hospital, "dozens of Gaza Arabs are being treated... at the same time terrorists are bombarding the city." ("Israeli Hospital Cares for Sick and Injured Gaza Arabs," by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Israel National News, December 29, 2008)
By contrast, in the Gaza hospitals, "armed Hamas militants in civilian clothes roamed the halls" where they shot and killed other Palestinians. ("No Early End Seen to 'All-Out War' on Hamas in Gaza," by Ethan Bronner and Taghreed El-Khodary, New York Times, December 29, 2008)
Shockingly, Hamas is not even allowing wounded Palestinians access to medical treatment. "We are waiting for the wounded Palestinians to cross. They are not being allowed to cross," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters. Asked who was to blame, he said: "Ask the party in control on the ground in Gaza." ("Egypt: Hamas denying Gaza wounded treatment in Egypt," by Alaa Shahine, Reuters, December 28, 2008)
It is absurd to assign the "moral high-ground" to he who suffers the most causalities. By this yardstick, during World War Two the Axis forces would be considered the "victims" against the Allied "aggressors."
Isn't Israel's operation a violation of the Hamas truce?
Hamas is responsible for the situation, since it violated the calm, is firing against and attacking Israeli citizens, and is investing all its resources in arming itself and gathering power.
The truce brokered by Egypt was exploited by Hamas not only to employ terror against Israel's citizens, but also to gain strength and massively arm itself with the intention of increasing their capacity for terror and expanding the range of the threat against Israeli citizens. Hamas men were being smuggled out and were being trained in Iran and Syria.
Hamas shoots harmless, homemade rockets, and Israel responds with fighter jets and precision-guided missiles. Isn't that excessive force?
The Palestinians have long cultivated an image of victimhood to win world sympathy and demand Israeli restraint in the face of Palestinian aggression. In reality, the Palestinians' so-called "primitive" Kassam rocket has killed and wounded hundreds of Israeli civilians. The number of casualties would be even higher without Israeli security measures such as early-warning alarms in areas under rocket threat that allow Israelis to escape into bomb shelters. Hamas has also fired medium-range Grad-type Katyusha rockets, placing more than 250,000 Israeli civilians under direct threat of rocket fire.
Given the Palestinian fire power and their willingness to use it, it is clear that the charge of "excessive force" is simply the latest incarnation of the Palestinian strategy of "victimhood." Terror groups fire indiscriminately at innocent Israelis and then complain of excessive or disproportionate force when Israel fires back. But according to internationally accepted laws of war, Israel is permitted to respond with the force necessary to end the conflict.
It is also important to examine the intent behind the use of weapons. Palestinian terrorists do everything in their power to hurt or kill as many Israeli civilians as possible; Israel is using its advanced weaponry to protect Palestinian civilians from harm.
Isn't Hamas entitled to defend its territory against Israeli occupation?
Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza Strip in 2005, uprooting thousands of its own citizens in order to uphold internationally-recognized borders in Gaza. The Palestinians have no further territorial claims against Israel in Gaza. But instead of working to improve the quality of life for its citizens, Hamas has focused on improving the range and accuracy of its Kassam missiles and mortars and increasing its store of weapons. The Palestinian rockets, therefore, can only be seen as aggression against Israel with no moral basis.
Palestinians have fired more than 6,000 rockets and mortars into Israel since the Israeli withdrawal -- all without provocation. The rocket fire even continued during the six-months of "calm" in the Gaza area that ended last Friday. Since then, Hamas stepped up rocket fire substantially, launching 170 rockets at Israel over eight days, an average of more than 20 rockets a day.
No country in the world would allow this type of onslaught against its citizens. As President-elect Barack Obama said during his visit to the rocket-battered town of Sderot five months ago, "If someone was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing."
Isn't Hamas the democratically-elected government in Gaza? Why is Israel trying to overthrow it?
Hamas promotes itself as the legitimate power in Gaza. In reality, Hamas is at its core a terrorist organization that refuses to renounce violence or recognize Israel's right to exist. Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
Hamas came to power in Gaza through a violent coup against the Palestinian Authority government. The international community continues to recognize the PA, under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, as the legitimate Palestinian government in the Palestinian territories. At the same time Israel is fighting terror, the government is deliberately and openly maintaining a political process with the Palestinian government Abbas. Hamas opposes these negotiations and any settlement with Israel, and constitutes an unstable element in the region.
Hamas steadfastly refuses to recognize Israel and continues to launch attacks on its neighbor. Since Hamas refuses to live in peace with Israel, the Israeli government has no choice but to seek Hamas' replacement.
View a short video on the current media coverage.
Foreign Ministry messages from Herb Keinon / Jerusalem Post
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Comments: 41
They need to do what they need to do.
When the Arabs love their own children more than they hate Jews, peace will come to the Middle East.
That's just how it looks from here ...
There has never been a Palestine in the context that the word is used today. Palestine was a region under control of the Ottoman Empire from 1517-1917, and included all of what is now Jordan, Israel, the West bank and Gaza.
In this context, Jordan should be included in Palestine.
Blessings and best wishes - S.
Also, the statement you make neglects Israel's active role in ensuring there has been no peace. Arabs could sit around loving their children all day long, but so long as Israel continues with its settlements, even expanding them and dispossessing Palestinians in the process (and making travel for Palestinians in the West Bank a nightmare through checkpoints, road blocks, and Jew-only roads), that isn't peace...and it will never be peace. It WILL be a continued violation of international law (which states you can not move civilians into territory you occupy). Sadly, Israel now has nearly half a million of its civilians living outside its 1967 borders.
There are many, many problems within Palestinian civil society today, and Hamas is a disaster. But your statement about "Arabs loving their children more..." is inaccurate, a little racist, and completely let's Israel off the hook.
The use of schools and mosques and hiding behind civilian populations, drawing fire on civilians, is what I meant by that statement. It is not personal in any way.
There are Jews who oppose the current military operation in Gaza, even Rabbis, but overall, Israel was provoked into the attack. Israel was more than patient and did little for a long while, hoping the unprovoked attacks on its civilian population would cease, but Hamas persisted in the rocket attacks.
Do you propose that Israel not defend it's borders? Do you propose that Israel not defend it's citizens? What do you propose Israels response to the rocket attacks should be?
As to your good and fair question, I think Rabbi Lerner (in the link above) does a good job of answering it. I'm curious what you might think of it.
A good start, but the devil is in the details.
Thanks for the link. Rabbi Lerner correctly describes the problems and offers rational solutions. I will look into his books.
Thanks again,
Tom
I understand WHY they are doing it, and I agree in principle, however, I think the media isn't telling the whole story.
as far as peace? I'm not sure its time yet.
Mooch
I think you wanted to use a better word than "Arab", but none came to mind yet. "Palestinians" would have been also incorrect. I can't think of an appropriate word either. I have in other comments merely referred to them as "that set of Arabs". Here in Jamaica as elsewhere, Arabs and Jews get along fine; some are even best friends.
I'm just glad that the violence has been reduced. Hopefully, peace may be next.
Regarding what Obama said, whenever my family is attacked or threatened, I react with such extreme violence that it scares them. I once drove my car at someone, intending to hit him down for trying to defend his friend from my wrath. The friend had hit my son in the head with a stone.
This is not to defend Israel, because I don't know the details, nor can I confirm what you have posted; just that if what you posted was true, I admire their restraint. I would not have been that nice.
The issue is that the Arabs in question are using schools, hospitals, and even Mosques to launch their attacks, knowing full well that they are endangering the lives of their women and children.
That is what I meant by loving their own children. If you love your kids, you do not hide behind them.
So if a foreign nation gave New Jersey to the Lenni-Lenape and they came in and bulldozed your land and homes you'd accept that because they have a [rightful] claim to the land?
Someone above even questions whether the media portrays the situation accurately. Are you serious? The media portray it accurately? Why would they do that? Using the media as your source of information will only lead to a biased perspective.
Joe, explain something to me. Over the past 10 years Israel has experienced less than 20 deaths from Kassam and other rockets lobbed into their country. During the same 10 years 5,000 Palestinians have died as a result of either Israeli gunfire or the Israeli blockade. Israel holds 10,000 Palestinians in its jails. Palestine holds 1 Israeli soldier captured fairly recently. How does one justify these dramatic differences? The Palestinians have a right to defend themselves against aggressive and Apartheid-like tactics don't they? If you construct a huge outdoor prison and administer it as such, what would you expect?
There is a war going on. It isn't in Gaza, Afghanistan or Iraq. It's here and it's against YOU. The war on terror, the war on drugs, the economic crisis, ALL manufactured events. Sadly, the writer of this editorial has been shaped by the very perpetrators of these global conditions.
How can this be allowed?
If rockets were being fired into Detroit from Canada, what would the response be from the US Government?
You can ignore the facts if you like, but Israel MUST defend its citizens. PERIOD.
You and your conspiracy theories are confused, you really need to see teh world for what it is, ,not what you want it to be.
You defend terrorism by the Arabs?
Really?
You are propagandized by the media Joe. You probably believe Saddam Hussein used poison gas on the Kurds when in fact, little known to the average American, the US government itself has effectively refuted that myth. The truth is out there.
At the termination of the Iran-Iraq war, professors Stephen Pelletiere and Leif Rosenberger, and Lt Colonel Douglas Johnson of the US Army War College (USAWC) undertook a study of the use of chemical weapons by Iran and Iraq in order to better understand battlefield chemical warfare. They concluded that it was Iran and not Iraq that killed the Kurds.
But, if a lie is told often enough by enough people it becomes the truth for many that refuse to do the due diligence we are all responsible for when it comes to subjects that affect human life. It's called responsibility. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Iran has no nuclear bomb making abilities and the war on terror is a manufactured construct. Equally, Israel is the terrorist state.
Obama said: "Let me be clear: America is committed to Israel's security. And we will always support Israel's right to defend itself against legitimate threats."
There was nothing about the right of Palestinians to defend themselves against far more extreme threats, such as those occurring daily in Gaza, with US support, in the occupied territories.
We are all responsible for the deaths in Gaza for failing to perform due diligence or for being lazy and accepting the mainstream or media perspective. History is the teacher here. Allow a genocide to occur and likely that same genocide will be at your own door one day.
The Israeli government has blocked the entry of a much-needed water filtration system into the ravaged Gaza Strip.
The French Foreign Ministry said Friday that Israel has refused to allow the French government from bringing the filtration system to Gaza, where people have been without clean water for weeks.
In some parts of Gaza, sewage is flooding streets and homes after the three-week long Israeli assault that ended last week when Israeli officials declared a ceasefire.
The Israeli military has violated the ceasefire seven times since then, including an attack yesterday that wounded a number of primary school students in Khan Younis. Palestinian fighters killed one soldier who was invading southern Gaza in violation of the ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the Israeli imposed closure of the Gaza Strip remains in place, and Palestinians have been unable to even clean the racist graffiti and feces smeared on their walls by the Israeli military, due to the lack of water.
The French government has summoned the Israeli ambassador to come to Paris and explain why the Israelis have refused the entry of their water filtration system, despite the French government going through the correct channels to get the water system approved.
1. Denying Israeli war crimes and fabricating accounts minimizing the Jewish State’s killings. The Daily Alert (January 22, 2009) claimed that Israel killed only 600 Palestinians and “most were fighters.” The Daily Alert denied on site reports by major human rights workers, Red Cross officials, Palestinian and international doctors and medical workers and journalists, who risked their lives (and some died) documenting the nearly 1,400 deaths, over 2/3 of which were children, women and non-combatants.
2. Repeating Israeli propaganda justifying the bombing of the United Nations-run schools by claiming the schools were ‘infiltrated by Palestinian terrorists’ among the thousands of refugees (The Daily Alert, January 22, 2009). There was not a single armed resistance fighter found among the 40 bodies recovered from the rubble by the United Nations workers, International Red Cross and Palestinian medical crews at the girls’ elementary school; all were children, teachers and refugees. Every organization and individual eyewitness refutes the Zionist-American apology of the Israeli bombing of the school, including the entire European Union. The most bizarre fabrication printed in the Daily Alert is a headline, which read: “Hamas Shot from Civilian Neighborhoods” over an article by Rod Nordland (Newsweek), which, in fact, reports the opposite, “Everyone of the residents interviewed in eastern Jabeliya insisted that there had been no provocation from the area, no resistance fighters and no rocket launchings.”
3. The third lie is a whopper: “Israel Doing its Best to Help Gazans”, (Daily Alert, January 16, 2009). In fact, Israel blocked all medicine and medical equipment from entering Gaza, bombed hospitals, shot up ambulances, murdered doctors and medical aid workers and blocked all shipment of water, food and fuel. The Israelis bombed the main United Nations food and medical supply warehouse, destroying its entire contents. The US Zionists defended this bombing by citing Olmert’s blood libel that the destruction of thousands of tons of food was a “response to fire coming from the building.” The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was outraged by this barefaced lie as he visited the still smoldering UN warehouse to view the destruction while the US Secretary of State Rice crawled before the Israelis, begging them to “avoid (a repeat of) such incidents.” (Daily Alert, January 16, 2009)
4. “Saving Gaza by Destroying the Heart of Terror” (Daily Alert, January 16, 2009). The Jewish propaganda sheet reproduces an article by the ultra-nationalist Natan Sharansky, who advocates expelling all Palestinian Arabs from ‘Greater Israel’. In an article published in Bloomberg, Sharansky defended the destruction of over 10,000 houses, damaging over 40,000 homes, roads, hospitals, power installations, water and sewage installations, 121 industries and commercial workshops, 30 mosques, 29 educational institutions, farms, poultries, dairies, small fishing vessels and the fishing port (according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and cited in Stephen Lendman’s essay, “Israel Killed Everything but the Will to Resist”, January 25, 2009).
5. The Fifth Big Lie: “Israeli Pilot Tries to Avoid Hitting Civilians”, (Daily Alert, January 14, 2009). Photos published in all the international mass media refute this Zionist propaganda claim. The ghostly rubble of whole apartment blocks resembles a nuclear strike or an earthquake, according to the BBC reporters who finally made it into Gaza. Numerous European Parliamentary representatives and other on site visitors from throughout the world were shocked by the devastation. Not only did Israeli pilots target all civilian targets, but their ground troops assassinated unarmed civilians holding white flags and in some cases even small children attempting to flee. Surviving Palestinian children tell of their fathers executed in front of their families.
Really?
No but I don't defend the terrorism of the United States or Israel Either. I don't follow the American theory of terrorism. Terrorism is the use and violence and intimidation as a means of coercion in the pursuit of political aims.
No rockets, no problems.
The people of Gaza must rise up and remove the terrorists from among their ranks, only then can normal life resume.
Spewing propaganda? I simply asked a question and answered yours. Why should Israel even exist when it never did before? Why is it that when Israel was encroaching on the pittance of land left to the Palestinians, using their American provided war machines, no one seemed to care? Palestinians and Jews seemed to be able to live and work together just fine until the Zionist Federation came to town. I still don't understand how the Jews feel they are entitled to this land. Maybe you can explain?
I direct you back to my original question.
If a foreign nation gave New Jersey to the Lenni-Lenape and they came in and bulldozed your land and homes you'd accept that because they have a [rightful] claim to the land?
Do you have no knowledge of history or the British Mandate for Palestine?
The area of the Mandate was originally 118,000 square kilometers (about 45,000 square miles). In 1921, Britain took the 91,000 square kilometers of the Palestine Mandate east of the Jordan River, and created Trans-Jordan (later the Arab country of Jordan) as a new Arab protectorate. Jews were barred by law from living or owning property east of the Jordan river, even though that land was over three-fourths of the original Mandate.
In 1923, Britain ceded the Golan Heights (another 1,176 square kilometers of the Palestine Mandate) to the French Mandate of Syria. Jews were also barred from living there. Jewish settlers on the Golan Heights were forced to abandon their homes and relocate inside the western area of the British Mandate.
The total remaining area of the Mandate for Palestine, after these land deductions, was just under 26,000 square kilometers (about 10,000 square miles). The southern part of the Mandate – the desert of the Negev – was also closed by the British to Jewish settlement. The area was inhabited by 15,000 roaming Bedouins, and had no Jewish or Arab settlements in it.
The balance of the Mandate, the inhabited part of Palestine, and only the part west of the Jordan, was just 14,000 square kilometers. Jewish immigration was limited by the British from time to time, especially after the periods of Arab riots and severely restricted after 1939. At the same time, Arab immigration was not restricted or even recorded. By 1948, when the State of Israel was founded, 1.8 million people lived the western area of the Mandate, estimated to be 600,000 Jews and 1.2 million Arabs. Following the war between the Jews and the Arabs in 1948, the inhabited areas of the 14,000 square kilometers were divided along cease-fire lines between Israel and Jordan/Egypt. 8,000 square kilometers, or 57% of the reduced area (which is only 6.7% of the original Mandate territory), became Israel. The rest of the area of western Palestine, 5,700 square kilometers of historic Judea and Samaria, was annexed by Jordan – and renamed the West Bank - while 360 square kilometers were occupied by Egypt and called the Gaza Strip.
Zionist Federation
If you mean Israel, say so.
Can you answer in your own words and understanding of the situation or just copy and paste? What is the logic and the reason for the existence of Israel in the first place. How is this any different from the Canadians "mandating" that Mexicans can immigrate to and settle in TX providing them the military equipment to defend their "right" to do so? Tossing in a few nuclear missiles for good measures?
A large amount of the land that eventually became Israel was uninhabited malaria infested swampland. Jewish settlers purchased the land, drained the swamps and made the land inhabitable. This, in turn, attracted Arabs to move to these areas seeking work.
These lands were purchased, not occupied.
Study history, not Arab propaganda, and you will understand. If you are only interested in parroting Arab propaganda, you can take your nonsense elsewhere.
I have studied history and question all propaganda including that of America and Britain and when you read the actual documents that were created and referred to it doesn't provide any justification and doesn't show the Zionists wanted or adhered to the "mandates" either.
To defend something one has to have a justification for their position or it cannot be considered defense. The Israeli occupation would be like America building walls around all the Indian reservations preventing travel of people and goods in or out and enforcing it by military force. Isn't it?
The people that owned the land, mostly Arabs.
If they bought the land and were justified in ownership why did they need soldiers to protect the worker?
When you are being attacked, you need protection. What about this do you not understand?
How many were actually left after after the outbreaks of malaria and other such diseases?
I don't know, but the areas were almost uninhabitable before the Jews drained the swamps.
Why didn't America and Britain have them come to their countries?
They did. Did you notice that the US has more Jews than Israel does?
Your lack of objectiveness and knowledge of the history of the region is almost comical. Please, open your mind and learn the truth, not just the propaganda.
And while yes, Jewish people have lived throughout the world, with the largest population in the US, why didn't Britain or The US give them land here to have their own state/country?
I am looking for the truth and it seems that there is very little to be had. The simple question is ignored and remains unanswered. Based upon the title of the post I thought you'd be able to answer the question.
The Hebrew People, who cling to Yahweh for their very survival, and have for thousands of years, are His chosen people; and though they have made mistakes, like even Christians and the New Testament Church (Catholics and other Christians) have, they are the very Apple of His eye, and He has planned to bless them and to bless the earth through them.
Another Zionist Christian for Israel,
Father St. John of the Cross
P.S. My Rabbi is Jewish!