A Soldier's Mother..
28 March '13..
...is really, really, really still a lie.
Last week, hoping to impress Obama and really make a point, Hamas fired 5 rockets at Israel. At least one or two landed in Gaza - for which others will probably manage to blame us. But three landed in Israel, including one that damaged a house in Sderot. Message delivered.
Not wanting to start an all-out-war over something that probably was more about making a point than actually trying to escalate something, Israel decided to respond by cutting the available fishing area for Gaza fisherman. It was partially a symbolic act and partially one that would cause some distress while not inflicting major discomfort.
Notice that the cutting of the fishing area occurred AFTER Israel had been hit by Gaza rockets.
Hamas is apparently claiming that WE broke the ceasefire agreement, which specified increased fishing rights for Palestinian fisherman. WE broke the agreement? We BROKE it? Huh?
Yes, that's right - we broke it, not them. Their firing rockets was acceptable, you see - but our cutting out part of the fishing area is not...and what we learn from that is that the world can be fooled if you manage to tell a lie with a straight face.
And when the world, the UN, etc. condemns Israel for this response...response...response...response...I will say two things. The first is that even if you tell a lie convincingly, it is still a lie and secondly, if you choose to believe liars (and terrorists at that), then the shame falls on you, not on them. They are being true to their nature, to their culture, to their beliefs. There is, in their eyes, nothing wrong with firing rockets at civilians, at homes, at cities. And agreements are made to be broken.
For me, I would prefer that we responded with a rocket for a rocket, a boom for a boom. But the problem is - if we do as we normally do, we'll hit our target and they'll miss theirs. And, if we intentionally miss and hit an open field, they'll be dumb enough to rejoice that we missed and never believe we did it intentionally.
It's an interesting Catch 22 - respond and we are condemned; don't respond and we are weak. Hit the target and we are giving back disproportionately; miss the target and we are weak. Refuse to negotiate with preconditions and we are being unreasonable; negotiate with preconditions and we are weak.
At some point, as I heard some months ago from a former Muslim, the world has to understand that the greatest danger to western culture and to Israel is to appear weak. Deterrence is achieved when we plow into Gaza - Operation Cast Lead, Operation Pillar of Defense - more wars and rockets and attacks are their response to compromise and weakness.
If I could convince the world of one thing - it would be of the wisdom we should have learned over 70 years ago - a lie told often enough...is still a lie.
Link: http://israelisoldiersmother.blogspot.co.il/2013/03/a-lie-told-often-enough.html
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.
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