Humble Opinions

As the fighting between Israel and Hamas continues in the Gaza Strip, I am hearing many lashing out at Israel’s actions. Thus, I decided to list the major ones I am hearing, and offer my highly intelligent rebuttals. First let me just state that I do not blindly support every action Israel takes. If I were running Israel, I would definitely do some things differently. I would also probably be a chain smoker and drink twice as much coffee as I do now.

(1). Argument: Israel is killing SO many civilians, and should be tried for war crimes according to international law.

Rebuttal:

Israel never targets civilians. Read the news - every civilian death is causing insane rioting all over earth, including in the US, France, the UK, and in many more countries. It hurts Israel for Palestinian civilians to be killed, and thus they take many measures to try and avoid this. Their % of civilian casualties is remarkably low compared to other armies that have performed similar tasks.

The reason there are civilian casualties in Gaza is because Hamas militants dress like regular Palestinian citizens. They have homes and families just like any other Gazan citizen, however, when an Israeli soldier passes by, they’d gladly shoot them. Hamas has been purposely firing at Israeli soldiers from within crowds, and from civilian apartment buildings. They have been storing weapons and explosives in mosques, and have been shooting at Israeli soldiers from schools, and even hospitals. All of the Israeli videos show this quite clearly. Because of this, Hamas is purposely making sure Palestinian civilians are hit.

(2). Argument: Israel is overreacting with its assault on Gaza killing hundreds, while Hamas rockets have killed only tens of Israelis.

Rebuttal: If Hamas rockets had any sort of aim or guidance systems, or if Hamas was able to extract more casualties in any other way, they would employ those methods. In Hamas’ doctrine, it states quite clearly that their short term goal is to destroy the state of Israel, while their long term goal is to establish an Islamic state spanning all of Israel. Israel, on the other hand, just wants to live in peace, without being attacked on a daily basis.

Israel has been warning Hamas to stop firing rockets into Israel for 3 years, to no avail. They specifically warned them many times that if they did not stop, Israel would retaliate, and it would be extremely painful for Hamas. All this was ignored, and now Israel has taken on the task of completely dismantling Hamas.

(3). Argument: The reason Hamas fires rockets is because Israel has been blockading Gaza and has setup dozens of checkpoints for Palestinians to go through.

Rebuttal: Think about this practically: Israel is always in dire financial situations. Income tax in Israel is just under 50%, and the majority of the country’s budget goes to supporting its military - out of necessity. An enormous portion of all of Israel’s money comes from donations by worldwide Jewry, and support from the US government. Do you think Israel likes wasting money blockading Gaza, or maintaining checkpoints? Those things are quite expensive. The only reason Israel has this in place is because if they took it down for even a single day, you would see the Mumbai slaughters x 10 happening in Israel. If you think otherwise, I would recommend reading more Middle Eastern news.

The Israeli blockade was setup AFTER Hamas seized control of Gaza and murdered the heads of the ruling Fatah party. The blockade and checkpoints are entirely self defensive. Israel has no interest in starving 1.5 million people. If you’d like hard evidence, consider the controversial Israeli West-Bank barrier, which separates the West Bank from the rest of Israel. Immediately after its construction, suicide bombing in Israel decreased by 99%, and thankfully these days, we have not read about a suicide attack within Israel for quite some time. Compare that to 10 years ago, when buses, pizza shops, and malls were suicide bombed on a somewhat regular basis. I believe the Gaza blockade and checkpoints are a similar situation. If Hamas would stop firing rockets, and prove it can exist as a peaceful neighbor, Israel would be able to slowly ease the blockade.

(4). Argument: Israel can’t kill 1.5 million people, so their assault on Gaza is essentially a pointless murdering rampage.

Rebuttal: While it is true Israel cannot, and will not kill all 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, there are many real beneficial goals to Israel’s campaign in Gaza. Here is a quote from DebkaFile, an Israeli news source: “The Israeli Gaza offensive has cut by half the daily missiles / rocket level from Gaza by wiping out 60 percent of Hamas’ missile stocks, demolishing its production facilities and knocking out of action the Philadelphi smuggling tunnels on the Egyptian border.”

In addition to destroying much of Hamas’ infrastructure and weapons stocks, there are 2 other goals that can be obtained: (a). Israel will show its neighbors (including Hizballah and Syria) that there is an expensive price to pay for attacking Israel and/or its citizens. This hopefully will deter Israel’s neighbors from igniting future conflicts (although, it doesn’t seem like they learned much from their defeats in the wars of 1948 and 1967). (b). Israel may be able to get an international force stationed between Egypt and Gaza, to ensure Hamas will no longer be able to continue smuggling Iranian weapons and explosives into Gaza. Personally, I would see this as a very temporary goal, as the UN peacekeeping force in the Sinai desert from 1956 - 1967 did not prevent the 1967 war, and the peacekeeping force in Lebanon in the early 1980s did practically nothing, as Hizballah was not disarmed in any way. But at least it might show some of the world that Israel refuses to live with its citizens being targeted.

(5). Argument: Hamas rockets do not even have warheads on them!

Rebuttal: That is true. Hamas’ rockets and missiles are not designed to destroy buildings. Rather, they explode and shoot shrapnel in every direction - thus designed to kill human beings. Every single rocket is shot at civilian settlements, making 100% of their targets civilian.

If you’ve got an argument I did not cover in this blog, please post it as a comment, and I will be happy to reply so we can discuss it, but please keep it professional, excluding personal attacks and vulgarity. Thanks.

Tags: gaza, gaza strip, hamas, israel

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