Standing beside the UN secretary general yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted again that every rocket from Gaza is a double war crime, since each reflects: (1) an intentional indiscriminate attack on civilians, while (2) hiding behind a civilian population for protection.
It is actually a triple war crime, because the use of civilians as shields is intended not simply for protection of the terrorists, but to ensure that Palestinian civilians are killed — to produce the response from the UN, the New York Times, and others in the “international community” necessary to win the media war that is conducted alongside the military one. In a phone call late last night in Israel, a noted Israeli commentator described the situation that Israel faces as Kafkaesque:
“The most bizarre part is that Israel is in the position of protecting the Gaza public from its own leadership that is trying to get them killed in order to win points with the New York Times.”
In another call yesterday, Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren said that Israel has so far used more than 10,000 phone calls, text messages, pamphlets, and other public announcements to warn Palestinian civilians of areas to avoid, and inform them of areas where they can safely take shelter. Pamphlets have been dropped from the sky providing directions — complete with roads to use.
As Netanyahu told the UN head yesterday: “I’m not sure that there is another military on earth that goes to such great lengths to keep innocents out of harm’s way.” It is an extraordinary accomplishment, given the fact that Israel is facing an enemy that uses triple war crimes as the heart of its military/media strategy.
Sorry, but as a Jew rather than being proud I am deeply distressed by Israel's policy of providing warning to terrorists to step away from their genocidal weapons before we destroy them. Israel instead is obligated like every other democratic nation that has gone to war to also target those who are planning to murder them. Rashi in the Talmud did not say "If someone is coming to kill you in the morning, rise up early and take away his knife," but "rise up early and kill him." So far Israel has failed to kill its tormentors, and war is about destroying your enemy. Have so many Israelis been so damaged by the millennial anti-Semitic hatred and violence of the goyim that treated us as weaklings and "undermentschen" that they are incapable of defending themselves as every other people? No Israeli government can claim any democratic mandate to protect even a single Gazan human shield at the expense of even one of its citizens. Certainly, by continuing its suicidal restraint Israel is demonstrating that it is neither a normal nation as Ben-Gurion hoped or a Jewish nation that is bound by Hashem to destroy its enemies who today very much resemble the Amalekites, attacking the weak, the elderly and the children.
chill, mhlout! You may be correct -and in WWII, they actually did what you ask for- but in today's world, propaganda is as important as facts. let the Israelis continue doing what they are doing- believe me, those bombs are real and those who live in Gaza are not exactly pleased a the destruction.
And please tell me, how Israel has been winning the propaganda war by constantly ceding its territory to terrorists, bending over backwards to not injure terrorists and their supporters, by not using capital punishment against terrorists, by treating their children in their hospitals, and by gifting them free water and electricity as well as sending them vital supplies including gas and gasoline? At the same time, please also tell me how Hamas is losing the propaganda war by regularly and indiscriminately targeting civilians, using suicide bombers in populated centers, and celebrating whenever they kill Jewish women and children? Yes, Jews eventually did win the propaganda war in World War II, so much so that for at least 60 years afterwards even most Christian anti-Semites regularly paid homage to dead Jews. I would have much preferred if we had lost the propaganda war and instead saved Six Million, much as today saving life in Israel must be our only goal, not defending an Arab human shield in Gaza City.
I'm with you on this one.
Let's ask ourselves the following: What if Israel plays by Hamas's rules? If Israel were to indiscriminately bomb Gaza, the world would be up in arms. Yet, Hamas does exactly that to Israel and nary a peep in the international community of condemnation or scorn for the war crimes of Hamas. In fact, Arab states come fully to the support of Hamas. n nIsrael is much too good to these terrorists and murderers. And, let's remember that these so-called innocent civilians who are human shields, have come out and directly supported Hamas's actions. These people are part of the problem and should be held accountable. That they are not is another problem.
The hard bigotry of zero expectations.
This is an amazing post at the Times of Israel. Commentary should make it a front page post.
This has to be one of Netanyahu's most cynical, hilarious and repulsive spins to date. Israel always starts these conflicts–they always then proceed to massacre even more of those they have already stripped of all civil and human rights–and the U.S. always "leads" the "peace talks". What's the real >>cough<< agenda?