He says the asymmetry of the conflict is the root of its violence, but makes only passing reference to the relentless rocket attacks on Israeli citizens.
“The fact remains that an illegal military occupation has been in place for 47 years,” he says. “It is one that has transformed life for Palestinians into an oppressive system of apartheid. Without changing that, nothing else will change.”
One of the paper’s most well known commentaries, Owen Jones, compared the current conflict between Israel and Gaza to “Mike Tyson punching a toddler,” and decried the BBC’s coverage of the three day conflict.
“The media coverage hardly reflects the reality,” writes Jones. “A military superpower armed with F-15 fighter jets, AH-64 Apache helicopters, Delilah missiles, IAI Heron-1 drones and Jericho II missiles (and nuclear bombs, for that matter), versus what [British Prime Minister] David Cameron describes as a ‘prison camp’ firing almost entirely ineffective missiles.”
This, and many other opinion pieces, demonstrates what Israel faces. In addition to trying to protect itself from those who crave to annihilate it, it is completely misunderstood and demonized by so many in the West.
How hard is it to understand that if Hamas would not aim rockets to murder Jews, Israel would not do anything in return? Israel would not touch Hamas if Hamas would stop sending rockets and suicide bombers into Israel. Israel is waging a defensive war. In war, you don't measure your response to the enemy by what they have done to you in the past, but rather by what needs to be done to stop them from attacking you. Israel must destroy Hamas' capability to continue shooting rockets at Israeli cities.
How difficult is it to comprehend that Israel is simply trying to protect its citizens from being murdered?
If the “toddler” was sending hundreds of rockets aiming to murder every member of Mike Tyson’s family; if this “toddler” declared that its aim is to murder every single person related to Tyson, is it expected from Tyson to allow each of his family members to be blown to pieces just because he knows how to defend himself?
There is a world of difference between the Hamas terrorists and the Israeli soldiers. The Hamas terrorist seeks to maximize civilian casualties; the Israeli soldier does everything in his power to minimize them while trying to protect innocent children from rockets falling on their heads.
That Israelis do not die in greater numbers has nothing to do with Hamas and the other terror groups. They’re doing their absolute best to kill us. They’ve been assiduously smuggling in and manufacturing weaponry so that they now have hundreds of missiles that can reach Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and beyond, while imploring the international community to end Israel’s security blockade so that they can import even more potent means to murder us.
We’ve not been dying in greater numbers only because Israel has maintained that blockade, at terrible cost to its international standing, and because rather than putting its citizens in the line of fire, Hamas-style, to win international sympathy, Israel has built alarm systems, and bomb shelters, and protected areas, and the world’s most sophisticated missile defense systems, to try to keep its people safe. With G-d’s grace and many miracles, Israel remains protected.
The Hamas terrorist fears times of peace, because then he has no purpose. The Israeli soldier dreams of a time when peace will reign. Then, the Israel Defense Force will be made joyously redundant, as "one nation will not lift a sword against another nation, and they will no longer learn to wage war".
Israeli soldiers drive an armored personnel carrier to a position near the Israel Gaza border, Thursday, July 10, 2014. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Occupation?
Equally appalling is the statement in the Guardian, “The fact remains that an illegal military occupation has been in place for 47 years. It is one that has transformed life for Palestinians into an oppressive system of apartheid. Without changing that, nothing else will change.”
It is tragically painful to see how one can utter such monstrous lies. Israel evacuated Gaza in august of 2005, leaving it ‘yudenrein.’ Ten thousands Jews were expelled from their homes, with their communities demolished by the Israel Defense Forces under the leadership of the hawkish Ariel Sharon who in a single instant has reversed his philosophy of sixty years. Not a single Jew or soldier was left in Gaza. Israel gave its neighbors the opportunity to create an independent state with a flourishing society.
Gaza could have flourished after Israel wrenched its 10,000 civilians from the 20-plus settlements there in 2005. Gazans could have built an island of democracy. Investment could have grown, as it did in the early 1990s, when expat Palestinian investors, believing better times were at hand, fueled a brief property boom. Gaza’s golden beaches could have been a promising tourism draw. If Gaza had become a seemingly stable area, Israel might even have felt sufficiently trusting of the Palestinians as to attempt a similar unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank.
But hostility to Israel was so profound that Gazans couldn’t even restrain themselves for long enough to fool us into trusting them. No sooner were the settlers and the army gone than local residents smashed the greenhouses the settlers had left behind — trashing their own economic potential. The rockets kept flying.
The day following evacuation, in Aug. 2005, rockets came pouring down on Israeli cities, targeting civilians in homes, schools and streets. Instead waking up to the deadly consequences of the Gaza withdrawal and re-entering Gaza, Israel showed restraint. The results? Hamas has built a powerful terror war machine. All of Israel stands today in great danger.
1967
What is equally disturbing is how the lie can be told that it is occupation which is the cause of the violence.
What exactly occurred in 1967 that compelled Israel to occupy the territories? The Arab propaganda machine and much of the media has us believing that Israel just awoke one morning and invaded Arab territory.
That is a blatant falsehood. Israel was defending itself from an attack by four Arab countries which craved to wipe it off the map completely. Israel fought back, won the war and the territories from which they were attacked.
Why did four Arab Countries attack Israel while it was not holding on to their territories?
On Miracles
Child: "Father, do we Jews believe in miracles?"
Father: "No! We just rely on them."
Indeed, this has been a week of miracles.
Protective Edge—Israel’s campaign to end Hamas’ rockets against our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land—entered its fourth day on this Friday. Over 450 rockets had been fired at Israel, about 100 of them intercepted by Iron Dome, and the Israeli Air Force had carried out almost 900 airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
During the first Gulf War in 1991, 39 Iraqi missiles fell – many in heavily populated areas – and yet nobody died from a missile. By contrast, one scud missile fell on a U.S. Army barrack in Saudi Arabia, killing tens of U.S. soldiers.
This week, many hundreds of rockets fell as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, with the aim of Hamas to see, heaven forbid, rivers of blood flowing in Israel. Many of the rockets damaged many a home. Yet at this time, there have been few injuries (and we pray and wish a speedy recovery to the victims). Homes were hit seconds after its residents left them. Children’s camps were hit moments after they were emptied.
Any rational mind understands what we are witnessing is a miracle of extraordinary proportions: One rocket, heaven forbid, falling on a populated area can cause untold grief. G-d—through the blessed work of the IDF, the ingenious Iron Dome, and open miracles—is simply protecting His people.
Let us say thank you.
May God bless Israel. May G-d bless our soldiers and bring them home safely. May G-d protect every Jew living in Israel, and may He protect all innocent civilians on all sides. May G-d give our leaders the wisdom and the courage to protect our people and our homeland and restore peace to Israel, the only country in the world whose very right to exist is still challenged each day.
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TheYeshiva.net Team
