Gaza: Qassam attacks had to be answered

Israel has the unimpeachable right to defend its citizens in the firing line. To demand that it should refrain from doing so is callous and cruel

FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 31, 2008

The weakest weapon in the arsenal of those condemning Israel for attacking Gaza is the 'Qassams are harmless' canard. Granted, thousands of incoming rockets have only caused a handful of deaths since they began falling, but the psychological impact of the barrage has left an entire region paralysed with fear.

Visiting Sderot is like wandering through a ghost town. This is the Israeli town that has born the brunt of the Qassam onslaught, thanks to its location less than a mile from the Gaza border. To date, over 7,000 rockets have rained down upon Sderot. The result is boarded-up shops, deserted streets and a sense of impending doom etched on the faces of all who live here.

In terms of abject fear, nothing I experienced during my 15 months of active combat duty in the Israeli military (throughout the West Bank and on the Lebanese border) compared with my last visit to Sderot. Missiles rained down indiscriminately on schools, homes, parks and gardens.

Sderot has born the brunt of the Qassam onslaught, including more than 7,000 rockets fired on it, thanks to its location less than a mile from the Gaza border

Israel's citizens demand - rightly - that their elected officials take care of their security, as in any other country. Whilst Israel's behaviour towards the Palestinians is reprehensible at best, and criminal at worst, in the context of the here-and-now the collapsing ceasefire and resumption of Qassam attacks left Israel's government with little choice than to act, and act swiftly.

No sane or rational Israeli wishes to see Gazans suffer any more than they wish harm on the residents of Sderot. But, given Hamas's predilection for using Gaza's civilians as human shields, launching rockets from heavily populated towns and cities, taking action to stem the flow of Qassam fire was inevitably going to lead to civilians being caught in the crossfire.

Israel has the unimpeachable right to defend its citizens in the firing line. To demand that it should refrain from doing so is a callous and cruel way to dismiss the suffering of thousands of civilians in the south of the country. Just as Israel is wrong to occupy the West Bank for decades and ensnare 1.5m Gazans within what is essentially a vast prison, so is it wrong for Hamas to collectively punish the citizens of Sderot, Netivot and Ashkelon as a way of sending a message to the Israeli government.

Sderot’s residents deserve just as much protection as those of Gazans

In the long term, only fair and honest negotiations will bring a lasting peace to the region. However, in the immediate term, the lives of Sderot's residents deserve just as much protection as those of Gazans, Jerusalemites, or anyone else. Allowing Hamas to fire indiscriminately at Israeli towns should not, and cannot, be tolerated. International law recognises Hamas's actions as a war crime, regardless of who is wrong or right in the bigger picture.

Too many people play the numbers game, suggesting that things aren't anywhere near as bad in Sderot as they are in Gaza because fewer people are dying violent deaths. But that view is myopic, as well as unhelpful in terms of solving the crisis.

Whatever the casualty figures, the residents of southern Israel have been forced to suffer in silence, and raise an entire generation of children whose only experience of Palestinians is terror and hate. They deserve as much sympathy as those trapped inside besieged Gaza, because they no more deserve to be victims than any other civilians caught up in the conflict.

FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 31, 2008

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Yeah so the inhabitants of the Gaza concentration camp are not allowed to protest. Unlike the German camps the inhabitants are not watched from guard towers, they are watched by drones and hell fire missiled (not shot by Luger pistols) if they misbehave ! Instead of alleviating the cause and effect, Freedman & Co are merrily hurtling towards a repeat of history.

Posted by Iqbal Halani at 9:53am on December 31, 2008

What a self-serving article; poor Israelis having to live near Palestinians who object to being occupied, and the fear they have to live with. Unlike the daily butchery of Palestinians, many of them children, Hamas must take very young recruits as it seems Israel is only targeting Hamas. Actually the situation is somewhat different to this Israel-excusing piece. Hamas held a ceasefire for six months, during which time Israel tightened the blockade round Gaza and gave nothing in return. As soon as Hamas abandoned the ceasefire and started firing [home made and unreliable] rockets, Israel [and this excuser] claims it can't possibly tolerate these attacks on its innocent citizens. The reason for this attack is that the Bush administration [with many influential, Israel supporting Jews in positions of power] is coming to its end and Israel won't be able to rely on a blanket support no matter what crimes it commits in the future, so they are getting the job of killing done quickly. They are destroying Hamas infrastructure and personnel, including police officers keeping order, they are destroying government buildings and their ability to govern. And the attitude to Gazans is 'they are getting what they deserve, they voted for Hamas. But this is democracy, something Israel shouts a lot about as if having elections absolves them from wrongdoing. This is no response, but an engineered situation to enable Israel to ignore the world just as it did in Lebanon. Hamas are a product of the occupation, and the brutalising and murdering of of Palestinians since Israel was first created, an ongoing theft of land and lives by a truly Nazi state.

Posted by Peter Simmons at 12:19pm on December 31, 2008

I never heard of Jewish school books encouraging hatred and expungiung of anyone. Nor of holiday camps giving arms training; nor indeed of recitations of hatred or desires to be suicide bombers among Jewish school children. Moral equivalence? Bah! And when did the ever so scrupulous moral West put pressure on these Palestinian teachers and gun drillers to change their ways? Actually the EU paid for such text books!

Posted by Prof at 12:26pm on December 31, 2008

The article is well written - exactly as one would expect. Too bad there is no serious plan for peace between the two sides. Israel and the people of Palestine will never be able to live side by side in peace. I think Israel should have taken the bold step of offering aid to Hamas instead of destroying it.

Posted by BILL MUNTZ at 12:29pm on December 31, 2008

Firstly, as these qassam rockets make a lot of noise when they are fired, everyone in Gaza knows who is firing them, and where they are being fired from. Secondly, as suicide attacks prove, life means nothing to these people. Having a rocket launched from the roof of a house where five children are sleeping is so normal for them it is impossible not to believe it wasn't deliberate so as to get world attention. Thirdly, I can't think of any other nation that would wait eight years before retaliation. I don't think we'd wait eight hours in Jamaica. Fourthly, when one provokes a war with a stronger nation, one can't complain when that stronger nation uses stronger weapons. What this war has proven to me, is that the BBC, far from being an impartial source of news, is so pro Palestinian that it makes listening to Al Jazeera wiser.

Posted by suzann Dodd at 2:26pm on December 31, 2008

Unfortunately the world does not see justice for Jews, the only concern is the for the Palstinians, who like vultures suck as much money from the blinkered Europeans as they can, fire Rockets for years and cry foul when they receive some of their own medicine, they cannot be trusted, their word is not their bond, only hate which is tought in schools Mosques and media, is their code of life, they do not want peace, they are not a Nation, its been proven when Israel moved out of Gaza, they didnt build anything erxcept Rockets, plenty of fuel and supplies for Rockets, and claim that they were without fuel for the inhabitants, the propaganda that the Europeans fell for as usual.

Posted by sidney sands at 3:38pm on December 31, 2008

Err......... I thought that the present state of Israel was created by ethinically cleansing Palestine of its inhabitants. I think they want it back...............what do you expect them to do? Go away?

Posted by Daniel Pallant at 4:38pm on December 31, 2008

What a load of rubbish, Isreal are targeting the police and security services so chaos can reign, and more rockets will be fired in desperation, so isreal can jusify its immoral shelling in the gaza region, I feel for both sides, but is this the solution. I know many will object but the 2 state solution has to be speeded up, a ceasefire immediately. Last thing we all need is Iran getting aboard this out of control wagon. Happy new year everyone, and shalom.

Posted by Anthony Dalton at 9:45pm on December 31, 2008

Israel suffers from its good nature, restraint, and innate civilisation. Hamas are merely yet another inflammation of the violence spread by taliban and jihadists from the 7th century AD to today. Islam has always spread by violence and threat. In the first century of Islamic jihad it conquered from Arabia to Spain. In AD732 the erstwhile undefeated Arabian general Abd Arahman was stopped in his conquest of France at the battle of Tours/Poitiers by the Frankish king Charles Martell. It took seven centuries to kick them out of Spain, and they still consider that they rightfully own Al-andalus. Israel should get strict with the Gaza Strip, starting now.

Posted by michael jose at 11:49pm on December 31, 2008

At long last a voice of sanity. Well done for saying the truth however unfasionable it is !!!!!

Posted by Bico100 at 12:24pm on January 1, 2009

Again you allow Jewish propaganda on your site! If the Israelis lock up 1,5million people in a concentration camp (Gaza), guarded by hi-tech jetfighters and a navy along its coast, taking potshots at innocents on the beach, then you must expect retaliation. Those citizens you mention are free to move; not the Gaza people! From experience I now know that you do not want to publish my comments. We call that: Accomplice in crime!

Posted by Bob Visser at 12:11pm on January 2, 2009

Israel has been more than tolerant of the Hamas rocket attacks for much too long. What surprises me is that the United Nations does not take action to stop these attacks.

Posted by gal54 at 5:36pm on January 2, 2009

I feel sorry for them all. Killing thousands has never solved anything. I wonder if man will stop being barbaric. Upheavel in the middle east has always been there and therefore it appears that they know nothing else. Just revenge and...revenge is never the answer. I think they need lessons from the Amish. I'm getting sick of hearing about poor Israel!

Posted by janetta snyder at 10:01pm on January 2, 2009

Prof, Jewish schoolbooks doubtless teach them they are the chosen and therefore can do anything to any non-Jewish people because they don't matter. Jewish children aren't in a concentration camp, you cannot compare them, unless you're a bigot. michael jose, 'Israel suffers from its good nature, restraint, and innate civilisation.' Oh really? If that wasn't the sickest statement yet, it would be laughable as Israel rains down high explosives on a civilian population. About as civilised as the Nazis. gal54, the inhabitants of the Gaza concentration camp fight back, that's what you object to, according to you Israelis should be allowed a peaceful prosperous life while their government strangles the life out of Palestinians; cutting off electricity and water at will, blocking medicines, refusing to allow the sick to leave, acting like overlords and camp guards. The rockets prove that Hamas will not collaborate with their tormentors but will fight back with anything they have. That's why they are hated. Just as with the French resistance, the Nazis punish the families of Palestinian resistance fighters, bulldoze their houses, bomb their children. More than tolerant? What world do you live in?

Posted by Peter Simmons at 10:15am on January 6, 2009

A wonderful article. Before anyone comments about Israel they should first visit the country and see how Israel made the desert bloom. They should visit the universities and see the Arabs that study in them side by side with Jews. They should visit the hospitals and see how Arabs are taken care of in beds next to Jewish patients. The Israeli public wants to live in peace but its neighbours don't. The Arabs are taught in school to hate Israel and to hate the Jewish people. When the bombs stop falling on Israel peace will be able to be achieved. Until then Israel has to defend themselves in what ever way they can.

Posted by Mark at 7:43pm on January 7, 2009

Israel took the land of Palestine thanks to the Balfour Declaration. Israel is only what it is today thanks to hand-outs from the West and blood-money from Europe. Israel thinks it has God over a barrel because "The Covenant" supposedly allows them to treat all others outside themselves as unclean heathens; whereby stealing from, lying to and killing of any of them is a sanctioned right! Ask any one of them and they will tell you Hell isn't created for THEM, but only for the 'others'. The irony is that everything Israel represents is in total contradiction to God's Law for "mankind" on Earth. Christians should decide once and for all if they still wish to fear putting Israel in their place or continue to violate God's Law. To use religion falsely to commit crimes against humanity is an abomination this world should no longer be a party to. AMEN!

Posted by Dean Morgan at 2:10pm on January 8, 2009

I would suggest Mark and others who agree with this article go to http://www.ccmep.org/delegations/maps/palestine.html where four maps of the region say it all. Israel has been stealing Palestinian land since 1946, and Gaza is just the latest part they are trying to clear of Palestinians, last piece of prime seaside real estate. The West Bank is already peppered with thousands of Israeli settlements, all illegal, all full of right-wing, hate-filled immigrants with no right to be there. The plan is clearly to drive all Palestinians out to join the thousands already refugees in neighbouring countries. It's time the world acted and put a stop to Israeli fascism.

Posted by Peter Simmons at 11:43am on January 22, 2009