AN ONGOING BATTLE
Israel has been continually provoked and battered by its
enemies since long before becoming a State in 1948. In just one of many examples: In the 1920’s,
the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, incited pogroms against the
returning Jews by claiming falsely that the Jews intended to destroy al-Aksa.
Virtually the same words are being used today
by the mufti’s contemporary leader, Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the PLO. In the 60’s and 70’s, the
Palestine Liberation Organisation (before the Six-day War in 1967), specialised
in attacking airports, airplanes, schools, and public events. By the 1990’s,
Hamas focused on suicide bombs in buses and cafes.
We are battling on all fronts. While
both my grandson (a commander in an elite air-force unit) and granddaughter
(an arms instructor), are serving in the IDF , their father and family are living on a farm (moshav) only
seven kilometres from Gaza. Together with thousands of other families, they are
facing the day-by-day reality of thousands of missiles nearby pointed right at
them. Not to speak of the fact that, for over seven months, thousands of violent rioting Gazans, have
been sent by Hamas to storm the Israeli border armed with a variety of weapons,
including combustible, often poisonous, kites and balloons.
Israel’s air defenses have intercepted as many
as 500 burning kites, another 300 have set more than 270 fires, destroying tens
of thousands of acres, privately owned - as well as 700 acres of forests, Nature Reserves, etc. The Gazans
act with impunity - with complete disregard
for the Geneva Convention’s ban on
attacking foodstuffs or crops, and on targeting innocent citizens and their
children.
There is a stunning difference between
Palestinian terrorists who burn and destroy and the Israelis who sow and plant.
A short time ago, residents of the Israeli communities surrounding the Gaza
border initiated a tree-planting campaign. The regional council and the Jewish
National Fund (Keren Kayemeth), which supplied the tree seedlings, also
participated. The kibbutz member who started the campaign declared: “We’re taking
responsibility and creating the reality. They burn and we plant”.
The IDF was forced to go to war against Hamas
no less then three times over the past decade, because of Hamas rocket and
terrorist attacks. Only two weeks ago, almost 500 rockets were fired over
a 24+ hour period. "Red Alert"
sirens boomed out every few minutes allowing the border residents only 10-20
seconds to reach the shelters. Schools closed, workplaces closed; these are people
who have already experienced years of "Red Alerts". Some of the
rockets reached as far away as Ashkelon where my other son and family live. Two
of his sons are also in the IDF, both in commando units.
Israeli soldiers defend the border
with admirable restraint using only riot dispersal means and only, when given
no choice, with live fire. In a tactic known as "roof knowing", the
IDF often calls up civilians living near a target set to be destroyed and
orders them out of the area, in order to avoid collateral damage.
A correspondent for the British
Daily Telegraph newspaper described the considerable lengths Israel
went to avoid hurting civilians in the recent flare-up with Hamas in Gaza: "We
got a sense of how careful Israel was to avoid civilian casualties during the
airstrikes in Gaza. The Israeli army called one guy we met and spent 45 mins on
the phone with him, getting him to evacuate his neighbors before they blew up a
Hamas media building next to his”.
Israel need not apologise for defending itself against Hamas’s tunnels,
rockets, missiles and marches. Not for killing Hamas terrorists, planning and
leading the border riots; nor for the unavoidable deaths of Palestinians behind
whom Hamas fighters are purposefully hiding.
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