I've alluded to some of this
already, but want to return to look in some more detail at the various "fronts"
we are dealing with in this conflict.
I wrote yesterday about the fact
that Hamas fights "dirty," and that we will never lower ourselves to their
level. But what we do have to do is contend with that
dirty fighting.
There are two aspects to
this. The first is the use of human shields -- the storage in and
launching of rockets from civilian areas, which puts Israel in the impossible
position of either avoiding air attack on certain sites or risking considerable
civilian damage. This, in spite of surgical strikes, warnings to the
populace, etc.
As The Israel Project put
it:
"Hamas has turned hospitals,
homes, schools, and mosques into military bases..."
See here rockets being fired from
a civilian area:
Credit:
Brucesmideastsoundbites
An enormous amount of intelligence
work by Israel went into locating the sites of rocket storage. We
know where the rockets, especially long-range rockets, and
missiles are. They are not "hidden," in that sense. But this
human shield aspect makes taking them out sometimes very
difficult.
~~~~~~~~~~
The simple logic of the situation
tell me that this is why we've amassed troops and tanks at the Gaza border.
Not for an escalated operation intended to take down Hamas completely or re-take
Gaza, but because it may be impossible to remove those rockets and missiles and
related terrorist infrastructure by air without unacceptable levels of civilian
causalities. If we cannot do what we need to do by air, we may send
in troops. (More on the possibility of a ground operation
below.)
~~~~~~~~~~
The other part of the "dirty"
fighting is utilization by Hamas of the media and left wing NGOs to propagate
images of an aggressive Israel deliberately hitting poor innocents in
Gaza. Unfortunately, the media and those NGOs, substantially
predisposed against Israel, are more than ready to cooperate by telling these
stories, which lack balance and context. Which
lie.
Here is one stunning example of a
lie that was believed:
"A dead Gazan child, whose
picture made world media headlines claiming him to be a victim of an
Israeli airstrike, appears to have been killed by a Hamas rocket that
fell short of its target, landing inside Gaza instead of Israel, according to
evidence brought to light by...blogger Elder of Ziyon.[http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com]
"...International publications including CNN and Britain’s Mirror ran the tragic images of Egypt’s Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, Hamas terror chief Ismail Haniyeh and others cradling the dead child, and the media outlets explicitly blamed Israel for the child’s death.
"'Egypt’s Prime Minister wept today as he kissed the forehead of a boy killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza,' reads the Mirror’s caption under the photo. CNN reporter Sara Sidner referred to the boy as 'another victim of an [Israeli] air strike.'"
But when Yiftah Shapir, a ballistics expert who is the Director of the Middle East Military Balance Project at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, studied CNN's video footage of the explosion, what he saw were "a lot of small holes."
"It is reasonable to say that this damage is from a relatively small explosion at close range...If it was a very heavy bomb the damage would be worse, and at long range the shrapnel would be spread much more widely because of the long distance."
The IDF denies that it had carried out any strikes at the time the child was hit, in the area where he was.
http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/11/18/shocking-evidence-indicates-child-whose-death-was-blamed-on-israel-was-actually-killed-by-hamas-rocket-video/
Please see at the bottom of this Algemeiner piece a video of the vile anti-Israel CNN report.
~~~~~~~~~~
"...International publications including CNN and Britain’s Mirror ran the tragic images of Egypt’s Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, Hamas terror chief Ismail Haniyeh and others cradling the dead child, and the media outlets explicitly blamed Israel for the child’s death.
"'Egypt’s Prime Minister wept today as he kissed the forehead of a boy killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza,' reads the Mirror’s caption under the photo. CNN reporter Sara Sidner referred to the boy as 'another victim of an [Israeli] air strike.'"
But when Yiftah Shapir, a ballistics expert who is the Director of the Middle East Military Balance Project at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, studied CNN's video footage of the explosion, what he saw were "a lot of small holes."
"It is reasonable to say that this damage is from a relatively small explosion at close range...If it was a very heavy bomb the damage would be worse, and at long range the shrapnel would be spread much more widely because of the long distance."
The IDF denies that it had carried out any strikes at the time the child was hit, in the area where he was.
http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/11/18/shocking-evidence-indicates-child-whose-death-was-blamed-on-israel-was-actually-killed-by-hamas-rocket-video/
Please see at the bottom of this Algemeiner piece a video of the vile anti-Israel CNN report.
~~~~~~~~~~
This tactic enormously exacerbates
diplomatic pressure on Israel. People believe what they are reading about
the evils of the Israel self-defense operation and conclude that we must be
forced to stop to save the poor Palestinian Arabs of Gaza.
The French foreign
minister, Laurent Fabius, is due here today, and UN Sec.-Gen. Ban
on Wednesday. This is in addition to phone communication between
Netanyahu and other leaders, most significantly President Obama and
including German Chancellor Andrea Merkel. And there's more to come, rest
assured.
~~~~~~~~~~
Israel has been waging a PR war of
its own, and putting out videos presenting the Israeli side. But, as this front
is often the most difficult to fight, I implore you to help get the
facts out wherever you can. Information you can use follows:
Israel is so careful about
civilian life that sometimes an operation is aborted because civilians are
observed entering the area intended for attack.
A story about this
here:
"...in the early hours of
the morning, a squadron of intelligence collecting aircraft took to the sky.
Through sophisticated observation equipment and cameras the pilots were able to
identify a rocket launch, and Air Force aircraft were sent to strike the area.
But things didn't go as planned. 'We saw that innocent civilians were
approaching the area of the underground launch site,' said Lt. Omer, a source
within the intelligence squadron who took part in the operation. 'We immediately
contacted the forces and instructed them to abort the strike.'"
~~~~~~~~~~
Here you have more complete
information from the IDF on how we minimize harm to civilians:
Read this and share it, it's
amazing. Not only pinpoint targeting, and leaflets of warning in Arabic
and phone calls warning people of strikes imminent in their area. There is
also sometimes diversion of a missile on its way to strike. And there is
"roof knocking": a non-lethal bomb is exploded on the roof of a building where
weapons or ammunition are stored, which warns people to flee the building before
the target is hit by live ammunition.
~~~~~~~~~~
Col. Richard Kemp, a former
commander of British forces testified at the UN in 2010 about IDF behavior,
following Israel's last action in Gaza.
The IDF, he said, "did more
to safeguard the lives of civilians in a combat zone than any other
military force in history."
See and share the video of his
testimony, which addresses Hamas tactics and lies.
~~~~~~~~~~
Then there is information from the
IDF on our right to defend ourselves:
Hamas is sworn to the destruction
of Israel. This blog page provides videos of people, ostensibly
"religious leaders," who incite in their sermons and provide "religious
justification for unimaginable depravity."
~~~~~~~~~~
Israel still supplies Gaza with
70% of its electric power. I have been asked by several readers why
we don't just cut off that power. Legally we are within our right to do
so. But it seems fairly clear to me that we refrain doing so because this
would not be a pinpoint targeted action: all Gazans would suffer from that lack
of electricity. And while this would be a non-lethal approach, it would open us
further to accusations of being a cruel state that fosters the suffering of
innocent civilians.
~~~~~~~~~~
It should be noted that today
Israel opened the Keren Shalom Crossing into Gaza to allow in humanitarian
supplies. Every effort is being made to ensure that civilians are not
affected by the conflict any more than absolutely necessary.
~~~~~~~~~~
There are repeated reports of some
Hamas willingness to agree to a ceasefire now. But that "willingness"
-- conveyed by third parties and via the media -- carries conditions. Once
again I'm seeing a demand that we stop the sea blockade of Gaza, and promise not
to do targeted killings, even if we have evidence of someone who is preparing or
involved in an attack.
As might be expected, PM Netanyahu
dismisses out of hand any ceasefire proposal that carries
conditions.
~~~~~~~~~~
I hold my breath, with the prayer
that Netanyahu will remain strong and stay the course until what needs to be
done is completed. What is needed is the elimination of the Hamas
capacity to attack us.
The involvement of the
tough-talking Foreign Minister Lieberman is reassuring in this
regard. As Likud and Yisrael Beitenu are supposed to run as a unified
list in the election, Netanyahu cannot unduly cross Lieberman.
~~~~~~~~~~
As of today, Israel has hit 1,000
targets in Gaza. There is no question but that the long-range rockets and
missiles supplied by Iran have been taken out to some considerable extent. But
what is evident is that they have not all been taken out yet: Today another
rocket was shot at Tel Aviv.
~~~~~~~~~~
Yesterday, the Daily Beast ran
with a report, based on information from US sources only, that Netanyahu and
Obama had spoken and the prime minister had assured the president that there
would not be a ground incursion into Gaza unless the rocket attacks were
escalated or there were serious injury to Israelis in the course of an
attack.
This latter brings me close to
apoplexy. For there exists the same justification for hitting in Gaza if
Hamas has the capacity to cause serious injury, even if such a
tragedy has not occurred (yet). That we should need to wait for it to occur
before acting is unconscionable, in my opinion.
~~~~~~~~~~
But in the end I give this report
scant credence. The US does not want Israel to initiate a ground
operation. Obama has made this quite clear. He speaks about
supporting our right to defend ourselves, but would hesitate to give us the
latitude to actually do so.
~~~~~~~~~~
Today, at the weekly Cabinet
meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu said (emphasis added):
"We are exacting a heavy price
from Hamas and the [other] terrorist organizations, and the IDF is
prepared for a significant expansion of its operations."
And, reports Israel Hayom, "One
possible sign of this were reports from Arab and international media outlets
that the IDF had taken over the radio frequencies in Gaza and was broadcasting
warnings to residents living near the Israel border to move away."
In addition, we have a report from
the JPost today regarding suggestions from some members of Likud that
Netanyahu is thinking of moving back the Likud primaries, coming soon, and
possibly even the election in January, if the action in Gaza continues. This
suggests some expectation that it will not be over soon.
~~~~~~~~~~
However, Minister of Security
Affairs Moshe Ya'alon (Likud) wrote on Twitter, "If there is quiet in the south
and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel's citizens, nor terrorist
attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack." This
bewilders me, as he seems to be pulling back and ignoring the goals of the
operation.
And ahram.org
reports that:
"An Israeli official landed in Cairo
on Sunday for Egypt-mediated truce talks with Hamas to end the Gaza crisis,
Egyptian security officials said."
http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=59073
True? We cannot trust the Egyptians as honest brokers. Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil just visited Gaza a couple of days ago, in a show of solidarity.
~~~~~~~~~~
http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=59073
True? We cannot trust the Egyptians as honest brokers. Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil just visited Gaza a couple of days ago, in a show of solidarity.
~~~~~~~~~~
But on the other hand, we have the
comments at the Cabinet meeting of Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael
Beitenu):
"We are not yet at the point of a
cease-fire. A cease-fire now would be a serious mistake. The goals of
the operation must be achieved at any price, even with a ground
incursion, if it can't be avoided. We can't repeat the mistakes
of the past, when we stopped operations in the middle, before ensuring that we
had destroyed the terrorist infrastructure and before ensuring
that...they could no longer smuggle weapons. This matter requires perseverance
and patience." (Emphasis added)
"Ensuring they could no longer
smuggle weapons." Another related issue, which I will not address today,
if at all I can yet.
~~~~~~~~~~
And last week, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz appeared before the Knesset
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and told them:
"In the past year and a half, all of the combat troops
have undergone training on mission-related models to prepare them for a ground
operation. The sense that we are getting from the soldiers is, 'Let us in.'"
According to Israel Hayom, "It appears that senior IDF
officers, among them Gantz, believe that if a diplomatic solution cannot be
reached, a ground operation would be required, which according to the plan would
be conducted on a larger scale than Operation Cast Lead.
"GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Tal Russo said: 'We have a
plan in place that is incremental in its use of force. In Gaza there is a huge
arsenal of weapons and missiles, and we will have to take care of it with
whatever means necessary. The Fajr missile threat has mainly been destroyed, but
there could be several more here and there.'"
~~~~~~~~~~
A few final thoughts before
closing:
Hamas is using long-range rockets from Iran, and operates at the behest of
Iran. Our battle here extends far beyond Gaza.
Hezbollah, which is, similarly, an Iranian proxy, is following the
happenings in Gaza closely because they have critical implications for this
group. They are stepping with caution at the moment and there are reports
surfacing of some doubts among Hezbollah leadership as to whether targeting
Israel at Iran's behest would be in its best interest.
Iran is proceeding with its nuclear development and President Obama is
hoping, ludicrously, to proceed with "negotiations" with the Iranians.
Something else to be visited in short order.
~~~~~~~~~~
Please see the very supportive resolutions from the Senate and the
House:
~~~~~~~~~~
And as I write, the troops
continue to amass at the Gaza border.
Credit:
JPost
~~~~~~~~~~
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Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner,
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