by Isi Leibler
The Jewish state was
created to overcome powerlessness and provide a haven for Jews — not to
have them cringing in shelters. There had previously been considerable
criticism of the government for its failure to adequately respond to the
ongoing toll inflicted on over a million Israeli citizens obliged to
endure thousands of missiles launched against them at the whim of a
loathsome neighboring terrorist state. We had tired of hearing
successive Israeli leaders repeatedly expressing empty threats and
chanting the mantra “this is intolerable and unacceptable and must
stop."
Hamas is no longer a
terrorist faction. It is in every respect an independent state the
majority of whose citizens enthusiastically support the terrorist
initiatives and missile launches initiated by its evil leaders committed
to our annihilation.
The situation
deteriorated with the advent to power in Egypt of the Muslim
Brotherhood, the creators of Hamas. Since then, the Egyptian authorities
stood by as Hamas accumulated vast quantities of sophisticated missiles
and other lethal weapons including guided antitank missiles and
shoulder mounted antiaircraft weapons from Iran, Libya, Sudan and other
states.
That explains why
despite awareness that Operation Pillar of Defense may escalate into
full-scale war, all sections of Israeli society fervently support the
Israel Defense Forces operation. It is also gratifying that Jews
throughout the world are actively demonstrating solidarity with Israel.
Hamas was emboldened
into testing our resolve, believing that Israel would be fearful of
confronting the new Egyptian regime and also encouraged by the active
support from the Turkish government and the recent visit to the Gaza
Strip of the emir of Qatar who contributed $400 million to their
coffers.
Israel was indeed
sensitive to these issues as well as the effect of a military conflict
diverting attention from Iran — especially now as it proceeds with its
uranium enrichment. There was also concern at the civil war in Syria and
the dramatic rise of Islamic extremism throughout the region. To top it
off, there were inhibitions because of the U.S. presidential elections.
Nevertheless, Hamas
miscalculated. By intensifying the bombardment of the south, it obliged
the State of Israel to respond harshly or forfeit any modicum of
deterrence.
The initial outcome was
good. The IDF had clearly learned from the lessons of previous wars;
intelligence was impeccable; action was systematic and rational with, to
date, minimal civilian casualties.
It must be stressed
that the targeted killings of terrorist leaders are not acts of revenge
or a display of showmanship. They are logical military actions that can
be rationally justified in moral terms. The killing of Jabari, regarded
as the Palestinian counterpart of bin Laden, is a prime example. Unlike
U.S. drone attacks on al-Qaida and the Taliban, the IDF succeeded in
avoiding collateral casualties.
The global response
from most Western countries which followed U.S. President Barack Obama’s
lead condemning the rocket attacks and endorsing Israel’s right to
self-defense, was until now satisfactory, despite the usual calls for
restraint and for Israel to act in a “proportionate” manner.
But these are early
days. Initially, we are unlikely to face problems at the U.N. Security
Council. However, the General Assembly and U.N. Human Rights Council,
controlled by Islamic and other anti-Israeli coalitions, have
consistently viewed Israel as the aggressor and never the victim.
Neither of these bodies has even once condemned the Hamas missile
attacks and there is little doubt that they and nongovernmental
organizations such as Amnesty International will blame Israel
exclusively for reigniting the armed conflict.
In addition, while the
IDF is taking extraordinary precautions to minimize civilian casualties,
there will invariably, as in any military conflict, be mishaps —
especially in the Gaza Strip where Hamas ruthlessly employs human
shields by locating armaments and launching missiles in civilian
residential areas. In addition, our enemies have already circulated
bogus images of Palestinian civilian casualties, highlighting infants
allegedly killed by Israel. As in the past, these gruesome images will
be exploited to pressure Israel to back down.
And while the Iron Dome
anti-rocket shield has been highly successful in largely protecting the
major Israeli cities, there have already been tragic casualties and
regrettably more are likely if hostilities continue to escalate and
impact on the home front.
Clearly, the IDF would
prefer to limit the conflict to pinpointed aerial strikes. However, if
Hamas continues raining rockets against Israeli civilians, Israel will
be forced into a ground offensive in which greater casualties are
inevitable.
The main challenge for
the government is to devise an end strategy to achieve long term
deterrence as well as a strategy to be implemented instantly should
Hamas become sufficiently re-emboldened to recommence missile launches.
Israel has no desire to
return to the era of the tit-for-tat war of attrition whereby we
respond to missile launches by bombing rocket launching sites and empty
buildings.
Although some of our
allies are already urging us not to respond “disproportionately”, such a
concept has absolutely no relevance to the threat facing Israel. While
still seeking to minimize civilian casualties, we must create genuine
deterrence in order to avoid future full-scale conflicts of ever
increasing magnitude. In fact, a disproportionate response to aggression
is fully consistent with international law in which the prime
obligation of the state is to protect its civilians. Those seeking to
deny us this basic right are maliciously hypocritical.
The issue of Israel
continuing to provide Hamas-controlled Gaza with services is another
bizarre anomaly. It is one thing to be sensitive to the humanitarian
needs of civilian noncombatants, but to continue providing electricity
and other utilities to a neighboring state raining missiles against us
is utterly perverse. If the lights went out automatically every time a
rocket was dispatched, the inconvenienced Gaza residents might even
influence their leaders to hesitate before launching missiles.
An intensive government
campaign must be implemented to counter the impact of successive years
of the world having become conditioned to regarding Israel under missile
attacks as a normative way of life. We must highlight the fact that
such attacks against civilians are unequivocally war crimes. Would the
U.S. respond “proportionately” if 50 million Americans were under
missile attack from Mexico or Canada for a decade? Or if France faced
such bombardment from Belgium or Luxemburg? No other state in the world
would tolerate this and we must demonstrate that a policy of
“restraint”, far from reflecting strength, displays weakness and
emboldens our evil neighbors to intensify their attacks.
We must recognize that
in future conflicts, the terrorists will continue accumulating more
effective and lethal weapons to employ against us. We must therefore
endeavor to resist calls for a cease-fire until such time as Hamas, in
conjunction with the Egyptians, undertake to cease their aggression.
There must be a clear understanding that any breach would result in
harsh “disproportionate” Israeli responses including the targeted
killings of those responsible for initiating attacks. In the absence of
such an agreement an enforced cease fire will be perceived as a major
victory for Hamas and our citizens will simply return to the life of
terror they endured since the first Qassams were launched a decade ago.
Isi Leibler’s website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com. He may be contacted at ileibler@leibler.com
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=2896
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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