[quote]GDollars37 wrote:
Peter Hitchens (nothing like his brother) speaks sense:
"Since we were already arguing about the Middle East, I thought I’d devote a special section of this week’s posting to the Gaza outbreak, still under way as I write. Here it is. Even though all the usual suspects, the Judophobes, the diplomats, the gullible liberals, say that what Israel is doing now in Gaza is wrong, it really is wrong.
My position, as a strong supporter of Israel in general, is that Israel’s action is wrong morally and gravely mistaken politically. Attacks from the air always kill innocents. It is no good pleading that you regret such deaths, when you knew perfectly well that your actions were bound to cause them. This was equally true of our own adventures in Iraq and Serbia, and is true of American bombing in Afghanistan. Israel’s moral position is seriously weakened by the deaths of these innocents, and also by the flanneling and evasion of its spokesmen over this.
And just because the usual anti-Israel voices squeak that the action is ‘disproportionate’ ( as squeak they will, since for them Israel can never do anything right) Israel and its uncritical defenders should not assume that the word is out of place. The rocketing of Israeli civilians by Hamas is a repellent form of terrorist murder. But the bombing of Gaza by F-16s, subjecting huge numbers of civilians to the maddening terror of aerial attack, not to mention the tragedies concealed within the phrase ‘collateral damage’ is what exactly? Yes, you can argue that the Hamas rockets are specifically intended to kill innocent people, as they are, whereas the F-16s are targeting Hamas militants. But, see above, even the smartest bomb cannot choose exactly who will be in range of its blast, shrapnel and heat. Those who ordered the bombing knew for certain that women and children, and other non-combatants, would die and be maimed. The difference between the two actions is nothing like as great as Israel would like to believe.
Also, what is the point of this brainless flailing? Does anyone in Jerusalem really imagine that, if a few hundred Hamas militants are killed, there will be no replacements for them? Does anyone really think that anything short of a re-occupation of parts of Gaza (at enormous human and political cost, and probably unsustainable in the long-term) will stop the rockets? My guess is that rockets will still be landing on Sderot six months from now, and that Israel’s political and moral position will by then be significantly weaker than it was before it launched this unwise assault. The action is as dim and misconceived as the blundering attack on Southern Lebanon under the same leadership. Both have no clear, achievable purpose. Both are propaganda gifts to the enemies of Israel, who are immensely skilled at portraying this tiny, endangered country as a giant aggressor, and who have had endless help in doing so from the stupider parts of the Israeli establishment. Both will end by demoralising the Israeli armed forces and people.
My suspicion is that these actions are entirely driven by Israeli internal politics, by the general inadequacy of the current political leadership there, and also by an underlying despair - the kind of dismal dead end which sometimes drives otherwise intelligent people into doomed adventures. Demography, the rising power of anti-Israel Russia, the increasingly pro-Arab stance of the EU, the likelihood that the USA will once again demand that Israel takes the Neville Chamberlain route to unsustainable ’ land for peace’ deals, the quiet emigration of many of Israel’s brightest and best, the alarming success of Iran’s sponsorship of Hizbollah and Hamas ( a far more genuine threat to Israel than Iran’s fumbling progress towards a nuclear weapon) must have an influence. But these facts merely explain the buffoonery of the Gaza attack. They don’t excuse it."
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Anybody can point out the problem, but I do not see a proposed solution…What is Israel supposed to do just sit there and take getting attacked? I am sure that is what many would like to see, but that is not a solution. If military action is not the solution than what is? Diplomacy with somebody who does not regard you as worthy of existing is some what impossible.
The solution is and has been in the Palestinian’s hands. The can stop the attacks and vow to attack no more. All of this will stop if they do this. Nope, they continue and vow more terror…Sounds to me like Israel has not choice. And I don’t see these supposed allies of Palestine coming to the rescue either. People are way to blind.
