Israel’s former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu really says all that needs to be said about the violence in Gaza in a column in today’s Wall Street Journal.
The situation: Imagine a siren that gives you 30 seconds to find shelter before a Kassam rocket falls from the sky and explodes, spraying its lethal shrapnel in all directions. Now imagine this happens day after day, month after month, year after year.
Over the last three years, since Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip, Israeli civilians–civilians, mind you–have been targeted by more than 6,000 rockets and mortar shells fired from Gaza. What would you do if you were in that situation? If the survival instinct had not been entirely bred out of you by too heavy a diet of The New York Times and other purveyors of the poison of moral equivalence, you would say: This is an outrage which must stop, and since Hamas shows no sign of stopping, we must use force to make them stop.
Please do not tell me Israel’s response is “disproportionate” or that, by defending themselves, the Israelis are resorting to the same tactics as Hamas. Netanyahu gets it exactly right: “There is no moral equivalence between Israel, a democracy which seeks peace and targets the terrorists, and Hamas, an Iranian-backed terror organization that seeks Israel’s destruction and targets the innocent.”
The response: “In launching precision strikes against Hamas rocket launchers, headquarters, weapons depots, smuggling tunnels and training camps, Israel is trying to minimize civilian casualties. But Hamas deliberately attacks Israeli civilians and deliberately hides behind Palestinian civilians — a double war crime. Responsible governments do their utmost to minimize civilian casualties, but they do not grant immunity to terrorists who use civilians as human shields.”
Exactement, mon brave! Really, what more need one say? Only this, which puts the conflict in Gaza in proper perspective, identifying it as one front in a much larger struggle that threatens us all:
We fight to defend ourselves, but in so doing we are also fighting a fanatical ideology that seeks to reverse the course of history and throw the civilized world back into a new dark age. The struggle between militant Islam and modernity — whether fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, India or Gaza — will decide our common future. It is a battle we cannot afford to lose.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
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6 Comments
1. LSD:To steal a phrase from one of the champions of the left, it requires a suspension of disbelief to so much as hope that the anti-israeli media campaign is borne of naivete rather than concious complicity.
Clearly, drawing fire toward civilian targets and recording the damage is a tactic of Hamas and their ilk. They seek to enlist the well-meaning in their offensive. There may be a disproportionality of military power, but the designers of these tragedies are not as stupid as those they manipulate.
And speaking of disproportionality, why is there so much less outrage for the human tragedies in Africa? And why does so little of Palestine’s humanitarian aid come from wealthy arab states? It’s because this sort of tragedy is their main offensive. The Kassam rockets are only used to set it up.
Clearly, it is a tragedy and there are innocents being killed, but it does not help at all to restrain Isreal from defending themselves. It will only encourage Hamas in their cynical campaign to eradicate the jewish people.
Jan 7, 2009 - 10:36 am 2. Alo:I totally agree.
The Israel/Palestinian conflict – as well as the “war” in Afghanistan and the “occupation” of Iraq, etc. – must be seen as part of a much larger and world-historical struggle in which there are no guarantees, least of all that the West will emerge victorious.
For a contrary view on this, check out this article in The Nation (I know, I know…).
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090112/shawn?rel=hp_currently
If it leaves you as flabbergasted as it did me, you might want to read my response to it in the “letters” section here (2nd from the top);
http://www.thenation.com/bletters/20090112/shawn
altho the 1st letter should not be missed either as an exemplar of total mindlessness.
Jan 7, 2009 - 11:08 am 3. David Thomson:Barack Obama will be president in a mere 13 days. He will have to say something definite. Obama is presently something of a mystery. I have most certainly not figured him out! Is he a self-hating American? Did he con the Daily Kos crowd during the presidential campaign? Well, we will soon find out. In the meantime, the Israelis need to kick as much serious butt as possible.
Jan 7, 2009 - 11:39 am 4. Skeptic:Here in Israel, people do not, on the whole, like Netanyahu too much. This is mostly due to criticism (justified or not) of his economic and foreign policies as Prime Minister.
However, even those who disagree strongly with him on these issues readily admit that he was Israel’s best-ever UN representative and, in general, is an excellent speaker and surely the best all-around supporter of Israel’s position.
Jan 7, 2009 - 3:32 pm 5. Thanks, Alo:Your references to The Nation are very useful. They expose muddled and odious thinking in crystal clear language — a rarity.
Jan 8, 2009 - 11:39 am 6. Lucius:What would I do if I were in that situation? I might remember the following:
Jan 11, 2009 - 7:17 am1. That the Palestinians live in a virtual concentration camp, with no food or medical assistance coming in for the past 18 months, and no possibility of getting out.
2. That the Palestinians have a legitimate claim to some of the land that Israel now illegally claims for itself.
3. That the pathetic homemade rockets are practically no threat at all to Israel–not one Israeli was killed in the latest round.
4. That Israel has killed many more civilians than has Hamas.
5. Do I really believe this show of force is going to bring peace to the situation?