09 July '14
As the the IDF operation against the Hamas and Islamic terrorist regime in Gaza continues, thousands of
It is shocking that in 2014 no other Jewish community anywhere in the world has faced these sorts unrelenting terrorist attacks attempting to murder their woman and children. And for too long we have been willing to put up with it.
One of the reasons that the Israeli Air Force has had such trouble taking out the terrorist commanders and their rocket crews is because they are deeply embedded within the Gaza civilian population. The terrorist learned from the brutal beating they were administered by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead in 2008 and have changed their tactics. Today, the Hamas leaders operate solely from inside schools, mosques, apartment buildings and hospitals. The rockets and their launchers are also hidden away inside of these civilian centers. It is virtually impossible for the IDF to strike at the launchers without endangering the lives of the Gaza civilians who act as human shields for the terrorist infrastructure. They just cannot get a clear shot. Each alleged civilian causality is widely publicized in the international media to brand the IDF as war criminals. This, at the same time Hamas and Islamic Jihad deliberately target Israeli civilians!
The IDF has tried to cope with this challenging sirtuation by adopting policies of restraint designed to minimize the Palestinian civilian deaths. Perhaps most troubling is the "knock on the roof" policy enacted by the IDF to warn the terrorists before the Air Force strikes. The IDF has been telephoning the terrorists' homes and warning them to get out before they are bombed. Sometimes the IDF fires a small warning shot before a larger bomb is dropped in order to allow whomever wants to escape to flee. Frequently, the terrorist utilize this Israeli warning to send children up to the roofs of their houses to compel the IDF not to rocket them.
Unfortunately, these IDF warnings and the "knock on the roof" policies have resulted in numerous terrorist leaders being able to flee before the army can target them. Since the start of Operation Protective Edge, Israel has destroyed the homes of Hamas military brigade commanders, political leaders, rocket manufacturers, field officers and buildings that housed explosive factories but has not managed to kill these dangerous terrorists themselves. This means the leaders then have the opportunity to organize and order further missile attacks on Israeli cities and towns. The result is they have additional opportunities to murder our civilians.
Shurat HaDin is calling on Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and the IDF senior leadership to discontinue these misguided policies. As long as the terrorists are embedded in the Gaza civilian population, hide in civilian homes and hospitals, refuse to wear military insignias and launch missiles from heavily populated Gaza neighborhoods, the IDF has a right and a moral obligation to carry out the targeted killings of the terrorist leaders and missile crews without warnings. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are in clear violation of international law and the IDF has an operational necessity to hit the terrorists before they kill any additional Israelis. There is no need to warn the terrorists before the IDF strikes them and no moral reason to give the Palestinian civilian population a preference over the Israeli civilian population's safety and protection. The IDF was formed to protect Israel's civilians and it is to Israelis it owes its first obligations. As the great sage Hillel said: "If I am not for myself, who is for me?"
Thousands of young Israeli soldiers do not have to risk their lives going into the terrorist enclaves of Gaza simply because the IDF wants to show the world how ethical we are. The IDF must place Israel's own interests above and beyond everything else. Hamas started this war, let them be responsible for safeguarding their own civilians. Discontinue the telephone warnings and the "knock on the roof" policies that allow the terrorists to fight another day.
Let us pray that this will end soon,
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.
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Unfortunately, as noted, after being warned, many terrorists escape and civilians run in to act as human shields, leading to their own deaths. IDF needs to protect its own. The world's media and the UN are going to blame us no matter what do. Kill first he who comes to kill you.
ReplyDeleteAllow the terrorists to fight another day, On Another day they will be even stronger that today, and they will still use their people as human shields. Then what?
ReplyDeleteIt is time that Israel forgets about being careful not to bomb where civilians are. They know full well that these Heroes embed themselves and their Weapons in Schools,Hospitals etc. The fact of the matter that all these Palestinians are all the enemy, yes even the children have been taught to hate Israel. These children are taught how to aim and shoot a gun, so forget about niceties. Flatten their homes, destroy their weapons and lets end a 66 year old ongoing War. Definitely Israel must stop treating them in their Hospitals, stop supplying them with free Water and Electricity, then maybe they will appreciate what they had. Even better they may leave Israel and go to Jordan or any other Arab country, my goodness they have 22 Arab countries to chose from.
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