It is a good thing that I am not the type for kooky spiritual analysis. If I was, I would say that this is a sign from God that this whole Gaza hassle is a result of our laxness as a nation in the keeping of the 613 commandments of the Torah.
But since I am not such a type, I will stick to my usual political stuff.
You might be surprised to find out that a fire-breathing, right wing, wacko extremist like myself is concerned with civilian deaths in Gaza. Well I am. Let me first reference two thoughtful post on this issue and then I will throw in my two cents.
Here's the thing: I agree that Israel should destroy the rockets, and the crews who launch them. I'm prepared to accept some collateral damage among ordinary Arabs in order to achieve this aim. I support the right of a sovereign nation to protect its citizens which is why I supported the war on Afghanistan, and also the war in Iraq before it became common knowledge that Bush had lied to the country about Iraq's capacity to harm us. My support for the war on Hamas only falters when I consider the likely results of Israel's action: More furious, impoverished Arabs; more anger; more intractibility; less international support; the increased liklihood that Hezbollah, Iran or Israel's own Arab citizens will throw in their lot with Hamas. If any of that happens, the war was a step backwards, not forward.
(AFP) At least 25% of Palestinians killed during Israel's massive offensive in the Gaza Strip have been civilians, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Wednesday.
This is sad, but it means in "the most densely populated area in the world" where the bad guysplace their bases, ammunition, and firing positions inside civilian buildings (that's an international war crime by the way), the Israeli Air Force has successfully killed Hamas combantants75% right on target. That's got to be the most accurate bombing in world history! Seriously impressive.
Important housing hint for Gazans...when your neighbors are masked men loading missile launchers in their windows, it may be a good idea to move to a new apartment.
I have to say that they both make excellent points. (Although, every time I hear a Brooklyn Jew like DovBear say anything about Israel with such certainty, it makes me a bit sick in the stomach. )
As long as Israel continues to take half-measures, then no matter how accurate our bombing may be, we are acting immorally. We are acting immorally towards our boys and toward the Arab enemy.
The moral answer is to wage a moral war. A war who's goal is to SOLVE THE PROBLEM. That is to eject the Arab threat from our land altogether. Such a war will have a lot of casualties all at once and then will be finished. When all is said and done though, there will be less death an both sides. Also, and perhaps more importantly, we will not be in the position of being custodian to a people who want to destroy us. A position that is fraught with uncounted moral problems intrinsic to it.
If I'm gonna sit here and criticize our lunatic government day after day, I need to give credit where it is due.
Someone in the Spokespersons Unit of the IDF started a YouTube Channel with lots of videos of the Gaza operation. It seems that their goal is to show the world that each strike is calculated and aimed at very specific targets. I can only hope that this kind of thing will spread to other areas of the Israeli government PR.
Here is a sample of the videos that you can find on YouTube.
Last night I wrote a quick post explaining my opinion that the current Gaza operation will end up being another half measure which will end up sacrificing Jewish and Arab lives for the sake of a very short lived benefit.
I can't believe how naive I was. I must have just been tired when I wrote that post. This morning I read a headline at the Jpost that made me rethink the situation and realize that it is MUCH MUCH WORSE than I had thought:
The Left in this country, currently headed by Olmert, Livni and Barak want nothing more than to create a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza as soon as possible. The fact that this would require them to evict hundreds of thousand of the best citizens in this country from their homes doesn't seem to bother them too much. For some reason, they believe that evicting terrorist Arabs would be ethnic cleansing and evicting Jews is just a necessary evil. (Maybe it is because Jews have been ethnically cleansed so many times in history that it is just considered normal).
There has been one big obstacle that is stopping them from doing this. That is the fact that most of the Arabs in this country support Hamas and Hamas, unlike H.D. Mahmoud Abbas, are honest terrorist. They refuse to even recognize the state of Israel. H.D. Abbas on the other hand is more pragmatic. His strategy is to take what he can get now and then fight for more later from an expanded base.
Over the last months, Israel has taken many actions such as releasing thousands of convicted terrorist as 'goodwill gestures' to ' boost Abbas'. Essentially, the psychotic leaders of this country who worship at the alter of the new Molech called 'Peace at all cost' are ready to do anything to put this Holocaust denier in power so that they can hand him a state on a golden platter. Even if the Arabs don't want him.
But nothing they have done seems to be working. So now, in a desperate measure, in the last days before the election, they are going into Gaza and destroying Hamas' infrastructure in the hopes of propping up H.D.Mahmoud Abbas. They hope to accomplish two things with this:
First, to hand Gaza over to H.D. Abbas. Second, to boost Kadima's popularity before the upcoming election, so that they will be able to stay in power long enough to fulfill their dream of bringing the ultimate sacrifice to the god of peace by creating a Palestinian state.
Shabbat just ended a couple of hours ago here in Judea. Over Shabbat we heard rumors of the Israeli operation in Gaza. On the way home from shul I saw one of the neighboring families coming out of their house in the middle of their Shabbat meal. Their son was freshly dressed in his army uniform, with his M-16 and his backpack slung over his back. He was saying goodbye to his family before he ran to his car to return to his army unit from which he was given conditional leave for Shabbat. I guess he got the phone call to come back to his unit to assist in the Gaza op.
Seeing this really affected me. I have a lot of mixed feelings. On the one hand, nothing makes me prouder than to see our boys in uniform going to defend us from the evil terrorist in Gaza. For years we have been watching rockets land in Israel and we all ask ourselves the same thing.... When will the government act? When will they finally go in to Gaza and put a stop to this? So to see boys from our village going to participate in this makes a warm feeling in my heart.
On the other hand, I know without any doubt that this operation will just be a waste of Jewish and Arab life. So far I am reading that over 200 Arabs were killed in Gaza. I haven't read of any Jewish casualties as a result of the opperation, thank God, but it is hard to believe that there won't be any. And what are all of these lives being sacraficed for? The sad answer is that it is just to raise Kadima's numbers in the polls before the elections.
We all know that this operation will last for a limited time. Then in a few weeks, or less, Israel will be back to sending daily deliveries of cash, food and oil to Hamas, as they have been doing for years. The rockets will return. Jews will continue to be terrorized. Arabs in Gaza will continue to live in a big prison. And what will have been accomplished? Nothing!
This is all because we are not ready to stop and think logically. Anyone who will anylize the big picture will come to only one, comprehensive, lasting solution to this situation. That is that Israel needs to be for Jews and the Arabs need to be sent to any one of their over 20 countries. Israel needs to then announce that this is our land and we are not interested in negotiating anymore. This will be good for everyone involved.
It will very good for us, and even better for the Arabs. People forget that the Arabs in Gaza are still living in refugee camps 60 years later. They are held prisoner there by the Arab countries that want to keep them there as a pawn for more reasons than I compare to discuss here.
Instead what we get from the criminals who run our government is half measure after half measure which brings very limited, temporary results which cost Jewish as well as Arab lives (many more Arab than Jewish thank God).
Here is a video of Rabbi Kahane debating our Dear Leader Ehud Olmert many years ago. It is amazing how truth never changes.
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