Israel Matzav

An eye for an eye

This is a shocking article. It is shocking because of where it was published (HaAretz, Israel's Hebrew Palestinian daily) and who wrote it (Yoel Marcus, one of their more left-leaning columnists). But it's right on target.

Hat Tip: IRIS Blog

It is easy enough for a political leader, who spends most of his life traveling in an armored car, protected by bodyguards from all sides, to tell Sderot residents not to panic. If Qassams were landing every day and every night in Savyon, Ramat Aviv and Herzliya Pituah, I am not certain that Vice Premier Shimon Peres would have uttered that stupid phrase "Qassams-Shmassams."

...

The moment the Israel Defense Forces evacuated Gaza and its Jewish settlements, in which a third generation of settlers lived, and handed the territory over to the Palestinians, the firing of Qassams should have stopped immediately, if only to encourage Israel to continue to withdraw. The expectations that the Palestinians would rapidly construct multistory buildings in the evacuated territories to house refugees and create an atmosphere of progress were dashed. Instead, the liberated territories turned into a firing base. The increased bombardment of Israeli territory is the last thing that Israeli peace-seekers expected following the beginning of the end of the occupation and the separation from the dream of the greater land of Israel. [Although it's exactly what much of the right said would happen. Ahem. CiJ]

...

A Qassam that is fired into the heart of a population center, even if it does not kill anyone, is tantamount to a Qassam that has hit the target and caused a mass slaughter of civilians, and it demands a strong response. The Palestinians should know that if our civilians continue to be targeted indiscriminately, their civilians, too, are liable to become a target. Not in the Peres-Shmeres method, but in the eye for an eye method.

Read it all.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:32 PM