Action against Hamas careful, necessary response

Don’t expect media to report on the 10,000 rockets Israel has absorbed

By Ken Kwartler

article created on: 2009-01-01T00:00:00

On the day before Israel acted, Hamas fired 80 rockets. These followed the 170 rockets that Hamas had fired into southern Israel earlier that week. And the other 2,600 during 2008, even with its informal six-month “cease-fire.” And the 6,300 that Palestinians have fired since
Israel left Gaza in search of peace, and Hamas turned it into a
terror base instead of a fledgling state.

When the cease-fire ended on Dec. 20, Israel signaled that quiet from Gaza would be met with quiet from Israel. These latest Kassams, Katyushas and Iranian Grad rockets were Hamas’ response.

One killed 58-year-old Bebert Vaknin outside his Netivot home. Another tore into a Sderot synagogue, wounding several worshippers. Ten others hit Ashkelon, a major Israeli port (and Portland’s sister city) more than 20 miles from Gaza. (Another fell short of its mark, and killed two Palestinian girls in their Gaza home.)

These victims joined the 10 killed and 780 injured to date. Far more would be dead if each of the 6,300 missiles had struck a home, school or synagogue, as intended.

How can anyone question a nation’s right to defend its people against such attacks?

Hamas is a terrorist group committed to Israel’s destruction. Its funding and weaponry come largely from Iran; its headquarters is in Syria. Its leaders call for Jewish genocide. The United States and European Union both condemn Hamas.

Yet Palestinians elected Hamas to lead them in 2006. By 2007, Hamas had evicted rival Fatah from Gaza, and increased attacks on Israel. Hamas still holds kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

This summer’s cease-fire enabled Hamas to build a large arsenal, and underground storage and launch facilities. But its greatest weapon remains its use of Palestinian civilians as human shields and hostages. While Israel protects civilians with its military, Hamas protects its military with civilians.

Hamas has built a seemingly impenetrable paradox for any moral society. They launch rockets from civilian areas, and surround missile teams with women and children. Let us shoot, Hamas says, and we’ll kill Israelis. Try to stop us, and you’ll kill Palestinians. And you know how the world will react to that. Hamas wins either way.

Likewise, Hamas shoots at convoys bringing supplies to Gaza, then decries Israeli “blockades” and resulting shortages. Hamas missiles target Ashkelon’s power station, which would deprive Gaza itself of power and create a humanitarian crisis.

What enables Hamas’ success is the international community’s readiness to blame Israel for the harm that Hamas inflicts upon Gazans. Hamas can attempt
unconscionable terrorist acts, confident that the world will instead scrutinize Israeli defensive measures.

Israel can no more solve this riddle than it can defend itself meaningfully without running afoul of the “peace process,” which seems to tie only Israel’s hands, and oblige it to protect those committed to its destruction.

And so 250,000 residents of southern Israel have lived for years under constant threat of random missile attack, staying within 15 seconds of shelter, and listening for “Tzeva Adom” (red alert).

Their jeopardy so typifies free nations’ fight against terror that both U.S. presidential candidates traveled to Sderot during their campaigns. Afterwards, Barack Obama said, wisely: “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”

And so, at long last, Israel has. Israel hit back at Hamas command centers, rocket launchers, weapons depots and training facilities. With surgical precision. More than 90 percent of casualties are reportedly uniformed Hamas soldiers. Yet amidst the heavy fighting, Israel still let truckloads of humanitarian aid into Gaza daily.

The streets of the Arab world and Europe were soon filled with those decrying Israel’s measured effort to protect her citizens. The U.N. already urged a quick end to the defensive action, which would ensure that the decaying status quo is restored.

Commentators will question “proportionality,” despite 10,000 missile attacks and seven years of terror. They will infer right and wrong from casualty figures, read like sports scores, where context and informative reporting ought to be. They will not recognize, as the U.S. and even Egypt did Dec. 28, that Hamas itself is largely to blame for the carnage.

Those of us who pray for true peace must accept that world approval for Israel’s self-defense will continue to elude us for now. We must ensure, however, that our own common sense, values and voices do not.  

Ken Kwartler is a Portland attorney and a co-chair of the Israel Advocacy Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Community Relations Committee.