IDF soldiers are on the front trying to destroy Hamas’s
ability to strike us. From the air, missiles
are targeting buildings known to harbor Hamas terrorists and armaments. From
the ground soldiers are targeting the hundreds of tunnels used by Hamas to
sneak into Israel and harm its people. That has cost us over 30 lives.
This has resulted in well over 700 hundred Palestinian casualties. None so horrific as the 16 that were killed yesterday at a UN school that was used by them as a safe house. In the end - it wasn’t safe. More about that later.
Here is the problem. Hamas’s tactic of assuring mass casualties
of civilians is working. Every day on the nightly news we see reporters telling
us in somber tones about Israel’s attacks in Gaza while images of dying or severely injured children are displayed on screen being carried or in
hospital beds.
There are bloodied bodies all over the place, some dead;
some alive. Overcrowded hospitals are overflowing
with injured and traumatized Palestinian civilians. Mostly children. The anger
being expressed by Palestinians is palpable. Questions are constantly heard from
angry Palestinians in Gaza about why a certain target was hit when there were
no terrorists or armaments anywhere near them. UN officials are calling such events
war crimes.
These images have an impact. Even if you are Jewish and a
strong supporter of Israel and what they are doing, you would have to be less
than human not to recognize the sheer human suffering one sees every single
night on the news. Every additional Palestinian death; every additional Palestinian
injury generates increased sympathy from the media.
I think this situation calls for some clarity. It is
imperative to know and hold firm the knowledge about who is; and who isn’t to
blame for all this. It is not Israel. Not a single civilian casualty can be
blamed on Israel. It is clearly Hamas.
Let us not forget how this carnage began. Hamas started
firing hundreds of rockets into Israel without warning after Israel started
rounding up Hamas terrorists in an attempt to find the murderers of 3 Israeli
teens. Israel did not fire a single bullet into Gaza up to that point. It had
no interest in stirring things up. But how much can a country take before it
responds? And respond it did. The ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense system has
protected them form the massive casualties that surely would have occurred with
out it. Israel cannot rely on Iron Dome
alone. It isn’t foolproof. They had to respond by attacking the rockets, rocket
launchers and people who operate them.
Hamas is not stupid. They knew that Israel would respond.
Although they probably miscalculated the amount of damage their upgraded
rockets would do, they knew Israel had an exponentially greater military then
they did. They were counting on Israel to respond.
This is why they place their rocket launchers near schools
and hospitals. It is a tactic to maximize their own civilian damage when Israel
targets them. They have been telling their people to stay where they are and resist
Israel with their bare chests. (I heard a Hamas official say that on camera
early in the war.)
When Palestinians gets in the way of a missile, they are
called martyrs. Palestinians civilians see an Israeli missile and blame only Israel
on their dead and wounded. And their hatred of the Jewish people increases. If
they would think for a minute they would realize that the death and destruction
is the fault of Hamas, the very people they elected to run Gaza.
If Hamas would
simply stop firing rockets into Israel, all the carnage would stop instantly. But
the hatred of the Jewish people is so embedded into the psyche of the Palestinian
people that Israel is going to blamed no matter how much logic dictates against
that.
The anger is as strong as I’ve ever seen it. Anger that was generated by yesterday’s attack
of that UN school Palestinians were using as safe houses. It is however unclear
who is actually responsible for that. Israel is investigating. It could very
well be that Hamas itself is responsible. Maybe by accident. Maybe on purpose- in order to create more carnage and generate more
anger. It would not be the first time one of their bullets killed one of their
own children and they blamed it on Israel.
But even if Israel did hit them, they were no doubt hit in
error trying to pinpoint their rocket launchers nearby.
None of this truth helps Israel’s image though. The world
sees Palestinians being killed in mass numbers by Israeli planes and soldiers.
It’s hard to blame anyone else when one sees that.
Is Hamas winning the PR war with this tactic? I think they
may have won over some converts to their cause with it. But I’m glad to see a
recent survey of Americans the majority of whom support Israel entirely on the matter.
Thankfully the United States is still saying that Israel has
a right to defend itself against rocket attack and that it has a right to destroy
those tunnels. While it is also true that you keep hearing various
administration officials telling Israel to be careful about hitting civilians,
they must too realize that the massive number of civilian casualties is the
fault of Hamas’s tactic for purposes of garnering world sympathy. At least so
far.
There are some who are listening to the Hamas claim that
they are being strangled by the blockade of their ports by Israel. And that
they will stop firing rockets indiscriminately into Israel’s civilian population
centers once Israel lifts the blockade and allows good to flow through.
No one should believe for a moment that this is what this
war is all about for them. Not that the blockade doesn’t hurt them. I’m sure it
does. But Israel is not the only one blockading them. Egypt (which considers Hamas to be terrorists
too) has blocked their entry points too.
Israel is not trying
to starve anyone to death. They allows food and vital supplies (like
medications) to flow freely into Gaza. The entire concern is that these entry
points have been used to smuggle in weapons with which to attack Israel. Had they not been doing that…
and simply wanted to live in peace with Israel and prosper, there would be no
blockade at all. By anyone.
Make no mistake about what is going on here. This is about a
group of people whose goal is to wipe Israel of the map and clean out the Jewish
people from ‘their’ land… the land of Palestine. Until that happens they will
never be satisfied. They will continue to work towards that goal in the belief that
eventually God will side with them and they will achieve their aims.
Opening up those entry points would negate all of the
progress Israel has made to degrade their ability to attack us. Weapons would flow
freely into Gaza and they would restock their weapons in far greater number
than they had before. And likely with better more sophisticated weaponry.
Giving in to this demand would be suicidal.
Hamas has to be destroyed - or at least made impotent. Israel
therefore has no choice but to stay the course until they get the job done – no matter
what the PR costs are. It is a moral
imperative.
