A ‘disproportionate’ victim in Sderot.

Noam Bedein
aish.com
08 December '10

It’s been almost two years since the IDF incursion sought to put an end to the Gaza terror regime’s daily rocket attacks on the civilian population in Sderot and the Western Negev. While attacks have been dramatically reduced, the construction of about 5,000 new bomb shelters in the Sderot region demonstrates that the “peaceful” situation isn’t expected to last.

Israel was successful in reducing the threat, but not in changing world opinion. The international diplomatic damage has multiplied since the operation, and Israel still has to justify its military actions.

One common theme in global reporting on the IDF incursion focuses on the “disproportionate” death toll: 1,114 deaths in Gaza, and 13 on the Israeli side of the border.

The Gaza deaths are usually reported as mostly civilian, but, according to a recent report in Haaretz, Hamas admitted that 600 to 700 of those killed were armed terrorists. Given its history of misrepresentation, there’s every reason to suspect Hamas still underreports its casualties and inflates the number of civilian deaths.

According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, the vast majority of rockets from Gaza are launched from among the civilian population. If there is any disproportion in the situation, it’s in the fact that Israel must fight an enemy that intentionally uses civilians, hospitals, places of worship and schools as a shield.

I believe that most of us, as Israelis and Jews, care about every civilian casualty on both sides of the fence. No one in Israel pursues relentless war against those who, for 62 years, have sought to destroy us. Israel simply defends itself.

As a photojournalist and a humanitarian, often speaking to government officials and foreign journalists, I’ve noticed that the casualties in Sderot are rarely, if ever, mentioned.

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