Israel Reacts "Hysterically?" "Disproportionately?" How Do You React Calmly and Proportionately to Missile Attacks?

Want to know what living in Sderot is like these days? Check this out. I was happy to discover Laura Bialis guest-posting on Judy Balint's Jerusalem Diaries and have drafted her to report for Pajamas Media from Sderot. I have tremendous respect for her, as I do for anyone else sticking it out in Sderot.

So what do I think about Gaza? Seems that's what everyone abroad is asking me.

I'm as peace-loving as they come. Really, I am. Bleeding heart, even. But even types like me are having a hard time working up some old-fashioned Jewish guilt about the Palestinian suffering in Gaza.

If it were possible to send out an engraved invitation to be attacked, bombed, have your neighborhoods destroyed, your leaders hunted down and your people killed and terrorized – Gaza’s Hamas leadership would be first in line at the printers.

How else to explain the events that led up to this weekend’s attacks on Gaza, the ones that are predictably lead to headlines decrying the destruction that the Israel Defense Forces are wreaking on the population of Gaza?

Israelis were not in the mood for war. After the experience two summers ago, when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert responded quickly and forcefully to the kidnapping of soldiers, there were recriminations for months and years that he was too hot-headed, that it wasn’t thought out.

And so restraint has been the name of the game when it came to Gaza. Restraint in the face of angry residents of the city of Sderot who have had to face life under the threat of Kassam attacks that gradually escalated from occasional, to consistent, to constant. And yet Israel waited. Olmert and other leaders agreed that Israel cannot rush headlong into a conflict with Hamas, they didn’t want to destroy whatever progress was possible with Abbas, they didn’t need the world condemnation, and most importantly, they didn’t want to walk into a trap. If Israel was going into Gaza, it would happen on Israel’s timeline.

But Hamas grew impatient. If rocket attacks on Sderot weren’t working, they upped the ante and began attacking Ashkelon, with unsubtle hints that their next move was Ashdod.

They clearly knew this was a red line, that if crossed, would lead to Israeli retaliation, as it would be simply politically intolerable for any Israeli leader to leave such attacks unanswered.

And so they are getting what they have asked for – Israeli attacks, death and destruction, and the accompanying condemnations from the United Nations Security Council. Is it worth it?

Is the world truly so stupid as to understand that the Hamas tactic is to turn their population into human shields by attacking Israeli civilians with rockets that are launched in civilian centers full of women and children?

I love this BBC report describing the "angry and unbowed" Gazans:

One of the recent victims was a six-month-old baby boy killed when a roof collapsed on top of him.

A family relative, Ahmed Burai, 27, said the baby's mother found out her son was dead when she heard it announced on the radio.

He accused Israel of acting "hysterically" over the rocket attacks from Gaza and said that its military operation could prove counterproductive.

How does one react to having Kassam rockets hurled at you "non-hysterically?" What is with all this talk of "disproportionate" response - shades of the Lebanon War. I would like someone to reveal the secret formula of the precisely correct level of retaliation for senseless violence that has been launched against residents of southern Israel. Maybe if we can figure out the Emily Post proper etiquette for response, the UN will miraculously refrain from condemning Israel for defending herself. Ya think?

Later in the BBC piece:

Ahmed Abdullah, 61, a retired headmaster, says he spent the last two days terrified in his home as fighting raged round him.

He had no candles or batteries - the economic boycott has led to widespread shortages - and following an electrical power cut sat in the dark unable to obtain information from his radio about the fighting.

Mr Abdullah says the only way to stop the violence is to allow to Hamas govern.

"We voted democratically and we're punished for our choice," he said.

"They need to be given a chance, they need to breathe. If you give Hamas a political opportunity then it will only moderate the movement."

Hello, Mr. Abdullah - Hamas has gotten a political opportunity - and guess what they've done with it? They've squandered it. Big-time. They've put war with Israel on the top of their priority list - far higher than the well-being of their citizens. Do you not see that? Or are you just afraid to say it?

Poor Prime Minister Haniyeh has no office to go to anymore. I'm trying hard to work up some sympathy for him...Jewish guilt ain't what it used to be.

Posted by allisonks at March 2, 2008 06:19 PM | TrackBack