Israeli police kill terrorist who murdered 3 in Tel Aviv, 'Palestinian peace partners' declare him a martyr
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
Last Friday, a 'Palestinian' terrorist named Nashat Milhem opened fire on a Tel Aviv cafe
murdering three people. (The number of people Milhem murdered has been corrected in this post).
This Friday, agents from Israel's General Security Service
killed Milhem in a shootout in his hometown of Arara in Northern Israel.
Milhem was found in his hideout and was discovered after the Shin Bet
received information on his location on Friday, following an intensive
Shin Bet - Israel Police investigation that included many undercover
and overt operations to track him down.
The shooter tried to escape when he noticed security in the area, and
opened fire at security forces using the Spectre M4 Falcon sub-machine
gun in his possession, which he also used to murder his victims in Tel
Aviv the previous week, the Shin Bet stated.
The family has erected a mourner's tent in his memory.
That would be the same family whose head called for his son's arrest. The father was
arrested anyway four days ago.
Hamas declared Nashat Milhem a 'martyr.' So did our 'peace partners' at the 'Palestinian Authority.' Until they figured out that he was an '
Israeli Arab.'
The PA Ministry of Health initially added Milhem, who is an Israeli
citizen, to its list of “martyrs” who were killed by Israelis during the
current wave of terrorism, which began in early October.
However,
the ministry on Friday night removed Milhem’s name from the list. The
ministry explained that it documents the names of Palestinian “martyrs”
only in areas that fall under its jurisdiction, namely the West Bank,
Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
However, the ministry did not
offer any explanation as to why another Israeli Arab, Muhanad al-Okabi,
is included in its list of “martyrs.” Al-Okabi, who carried out the
October 18 terror attack at the Beersheba Central Bus Station, appears
as number 31 on the PA ministry’s list of “martyrs.”
The
ministry defended the decision to remove Milhem’s name from its “list of
martyrs” by arguing that this does not mean that he is not entitled to
be characterized as a “martyr.”
A statement issued by the PA
ministry praised Milhem as “one of the most precious martyrs whose name
has been inscribed with his pure blood that watered our the soil of our
free land.”
The ministry dismissed criticism by many Palestinians
for excluding Milhem from the list, saying he is no difference between
him and any other Palestinian “martyr.”
“We are proud of our
Palestinian people in the 1948 lands,” the PA ministry said, referring
to Israel’s Arab citizens. “We are proud of their sacrifices and
achievements. No one can deny their belonging to their homeland,
Palestine.”
In other words, the 'Palestinian Authority' still loves him anyway.
It will be interesting to see how many 'Israeli Arab' politicians show up at the 'mourning tent' and how their Leftist supporters in Tel Aviv will react if they do.
Labels: Israeli Arab, Israeli Arabs are a fifth column, martyrs, NotInMyBackYard, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian terrorism, Tel Aviv
NotInMyBackYard
Evelyn Gordon reports that the Government of Israel continues to treat the southern part of the country with a
NotInMyBackYard attitude. This article was received by email and was published in the JPost premium pages.
My
vote for most outrageous remark of the war goes to an unnamed senior IDF
officer who pooh-poohed southern residents’ anger at seeing rocket fire
from Gaza resume just two days after the army said they could safely go
home.
“It is possible now to be within those areas now just it was
possible during [Operation] Protective Edge to be in Tel Aviv and
Beersheba, even though there was firing,”
he insisted.
“This is not a new situation for [southern] residents. They have
protected rooms, and with proper protection it is possible to live there
... These communities have been fired on for years and people did not
leave because of it.”
What makes this outrageous isn’t just the content, but the speaker:
A senior officer of the army charged with protecting Israel against
external threats has essentially declared that tens of thousands of
Israelis have no right to expect such protection. Instead, they must
continue living with daily rocket and mortar fire, playing Russian
roulette with their families’ lives and watching their children develop
post-traumatic stress disorder.
Moreover, an officer charged with protecting Israelis against
threats showed himself incapable even of identifying a threat. Comparing
the south to Tel Aviv is ludicrous. Tel Aviv suffered one or two
rockets a day during the month-long war and is rocket-free between wars.
The south has suffered one or two rockets a day for nine years straight
and dozens a day during wartime. Tel Aviv’s situation is indeed one
people can live with. The south’s isn’t.
True, southern residents “did not leave” despite being “fired on
for years,” but even heroes have breaking points. Southerners heroically
endured for nine years in the belief that eventually, the government
and army would restore security. The latest war shattered that belief.
First came the discovery that Hamas had dug dozens of cross-border
tunnels from Gaza that emerged near southern communities. Hams could
have used these tunnels to kidnap and kill hundreds of southerners, and
apparently
intended
to do exactly that. Yet for years, despite knowing the tunnels existed,
the government and army did nothing about them, and even once the war
began, the cabinet, with full IDF backing, sought to end it before a
single tunnel had been demolished. Only when Hamas rejected a cease-fire
did the government order the tunnels destroyed. For southerners, the
message was clear: Neither the government nor the army had any interest
in protecting them; both were willing to abandon them to the tunnel
threat.
Then came the discovery that the tunnel network was far more
extensive than the IDF had thought. This intelligence failure left
southerners with little confidence in the army’s assertion that all
tunnels have now been destroyed, a concern they have
voiced repeatedly.
Third was the army’s announcement two weeks ago that the war was
over and southerners could return home, only to have Hamas resume
shooting two days later. GOC Southern Command Sami Turgeman and Gaza
Division commander Mickey Edelstein at least apologized; Chief of Staff
Benny Gantz didn’t even do that. The lesson for southern residents was
twofold: Not only are the IDF’s assurances untrustworthy, but its top
officer doesn’t even care enough about their safety to feel guilty about
misleading them.
The result of all this is that residents of southern communities
are now openly questioning whether they should stay. During the war,
these communities turned into
ghost towns, and a poll published last week
found that 20% of residents are considering making this exodus permanent.
“As a parent, I’m struggling with a very big moral dilemma here,
and that dilemma is how much risk am I willing to expose my children
to,” one southerner explained, noting that the daily “drizzles” of
rockets and mortars “make our life unbearable.”
"The residents of the area are exhausted,”
added another.
“We're frustrated that no long-term, strong, stable solution has been
reached. That's why the residents want to leave the community – because
of lack of confidence in the government, whose role is to provide us
with security.”
“It's impossible to raise children in an awful situation like this,” agreed a third.
Last Thursday, when 10,000 people – mainly southerners –
demonstrated in Tel Aviv to demand that the government finally restore
their security, Eshkol Regional Council head Haim Yellin put the issue
in a nutshell: “A sovereign state must protect the security of its
residents, even if they live in the periphery,”
he declared.
The reason why ought to be obvious. The south isn’t “occupied
territory”; it’s sovereign Israel. If Israelis won’t even fight to
defend that, terrorists won’t stop at turning the south into a
wasteland; they’ll spare no effort to extend these tactics to the rest
of Israel. And the entire Arab world – even those parts that currently
oppose Hamas and Hezbollah – will support them, convinced that they’ve
finally found a recipe for Israel’s destruction.
Of course, the IDF isn’t primarily to blame for the senior
officer’s attitude: The army of a democratic state is supposed to
execute the government’s policies, and his remarks faithfully reflected
the policies of three successive prime ministers: Ariel Sharon, Ehud
Olmert and Binyamin Netanyahu.
Yet the IDF’s attitude also matters, because it constrains the government’s options. It’s no accident that, as
Israel Hayom noted,
Gantz “was recently quoted as saying that every plan the IDF presented
to the cabinet was approved and nothing the military did not want to see
happen, happened” during the fighting in Gaza. Since the army prepares
the operational plans and trains soldiers to execute them, it’s
virtually impossible to assign it a mission senior officers oppose: They
can simply declare the goal unachievable, then make this a
self-fulfilling prophecy by failing to present viable plans or properly
prepare the troops.
Ordinary Israelis do seem to grasp the magnitude of the southern threat: In one poll
last month, fully 87% of respondents opposed a cease-fire, saying the
war should continue until Hamas is defeated. Unfortunately, our
political and military leadership has demonstrated no similar
understanding. And that means both must be replaced by people who do –
before it’s too late.
There was interview on Israel Radio after midnight last night with someone living in southern Israel. A large portion of the kids there have post traumatic stress disorder. Even grown-ups are afraid to get into the shower alone in case an alarm goes off. This is no way to live. Unless the government is willing to see our borders eroded (who will be next?), relying on the good graces of Hamas and Islamic Jihad not to shoot at us
seems to be is insane.
Labels: Gaza, Gaza envelope, Hamas rockets, Islamic Jihad, NotInMyBackYard
InMyBackYard: Iron Dome intercepts rocket near Tel Aviv
Hello again from the Holy City of Jerusalem.
I have written many times on this blog with respect to the
NotInMyBackYard syndrome that permeates this country with respect to rockets on Israel's south. Now it's InMyBackYard.
Iron Dome intercepted a rocket about an hour ago over a suburb of
Tel Aviv. Sirens sounded in alarm in the city of the 'beautiful people' (
yefei ha'nefesh) who support 'peace' with the savages known as the 'Palestinians.' Will anything
change? This is from the second link.
The Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted a projectile near Tel
Aviv over the city of Rishon Lezion on Tuesday evening, as air raid
sirens sounded in central Israeli cities for the first time amid recent escalations.
No injuries or damage were reported in the attack.
Israeli television showed a double-burst of smoke in skies above Tel
Aviv after air raid sirens sounded, sending residents running for
shelter.
Air raid sirens sounded in all of Gush Dan, including Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva, Lod and Givatayim.
It was the first Gaza rocket that reached Tel Aviv since Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012.
Following the attack over central Israel, the Home Front Command instructed the Tel Aviv Municipality to open public bomb shelters in the city.
Arutz Sheva adds:
"Color Red" rocket warning sirens were sounded in the coastal region
on Tuesday night in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Kfar Shmaryahu, Rishon Letzion,
Nes Tziona, Beit Shemesh and its environs, Rehovot, Gadera, as well as
southern communities of the coastal region, the Gezer Regional Council
area, Yavne and additional communities.
According to reports in the area, several rockets were shot down by
the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, and no damage has yet been
reported by the missiles.
The rockets apparently are of the M75 model, a domestic creation produced by Hamas in Gaza which features a long range.
The barrage of rockets towards Tel Aviv apparently was launched from
Beit Hanoun in Gaza; at least one of those rockets was intercepted by
Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.
In the latest escalation, over 170 rockets were reportedly fired at
Israel as of Tuesday morning in the preceding 24 hour period.
It's long past time to eliminate Hamas.
Labels: Gaza, Hamas rockets, Iron Dome, NotInMyBackYard, Tel Aviv, yefei ha'nefesh
Breaking: Rocket hits the beach in Tel Aviv
The sirens went off in Tel Aviv this evening for the first time since the Gulf War in 1991.
Two explosions were heard.
Two explosions were head in Tel Aviv following an air raid siren Thursday evening.
There were no reports of injuries or damage at the time of this report.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad has taken responsibility. At least one of the rockets hit an empty beach
.
It's going to be a long night in Gaza. Tel Aviv IS 'my back yeard.' Heh.
Labels: Fajr-5 rockets, Gaza, NotInMyBackYard, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Tel Aviv beach
Confirmed: Rocket fell outside Rishon leTziyon
I guess the IDF didn't quite get all of the Fajr-5 rockets on Wednesday night. One of them fell just outside of
Rishon leTziyon, which is southeast of Tel Aviv, around nightfall on Thursday evening.
Palestinians in the
Gaza Strip fired a rocket at Rishon Lezion Thursday evening, setting
off an air raid siren in the city. The projectile fell in an open area
outside the city.
Witnesses in Rishon Lezion reported hearing an explosion after the siren sounded in the city.
Rishon leTziyon is InMyBackYard. The government will not tolerate it being bombarded with missiles.
Labels: Fajr-5 rockets, NotInMyBackYard, Operation Pillar of Defense
Shelly Yacimovich to Hamas: 'Stop the shelling! Can't you see we're in the middle of an election'?
The woman who would be Prime Minister, the choice of the 'Center-Left,' the former radio broadcaster turned politician, wants a million Israelis to cower in bomb shelters...
at least until January 23.
Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich, on a tour of the rocket-hit South,
positioned herself against intensive military action, telling Army
Radio, "We are on the eve of elections, and operations beyond air
attacks or targeted strikes require stability and national consensus at
home."
"It could be that such an operation is necessary, but not now," Yacimovich continued.
I'd bet there's a national consensus on this one. Operation Cast Lead, which was directed by then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert after his government resigned enjoyed
91% approval among Israelis. Of course, in that case, the opposition in the person of one Binyamin Netanyahu also supported the operation. Will Yacimovich support it? Or will she risk the wrath of a million voters in southern Israel by telling them what we all know already: The Labor party believes that southern Israel is
NotInMyBackYard.
Yacimovich's boosters at Haaretz are claiming that
Netanyahu doesn't want a full-scale Operation Cast Lead before the elections, and are therefore trying to pin the blame for the current situation on him. But since that article is behind Haaretz's pay wall and I refuse to pay, I cannot tell you what it says....
In the meantime, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, who is a Netanyahu confidante, is calling for an operation
like Defensive Shield, the 2002 operation that shut down 'Palestinian' terror during the second intifada.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, of the Likud, warned that over time,
rocket fire would hit closer and closer to Israel's center, and said
Israel "cannot simply adjust and shield itself."
Despite the scope
of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza 2008, Steinitz said that Israel has not
yet had an operation along the lines of Defensive Shield, the intensive
2002 anti-terror operation in the West Bank.
For those who have forgotten, the biggest difference between Defensive Shield and Cast Lead is that after Defensive Shield, the IDF stayed in place in Judea and Samaria, whereas after Cast Lead it withdrew from Gaza.
Hmmm. Maybe Yacimovich needs to adjust herself to some new realities....
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Gaza, NotInMyBackYard, Operation Cast Lead, Operation Defensive Shield, rockets, Shelly Yacimovich, Yuval Steinitz
Sad, but true
Hat Tip:
Mrs. Carl.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, NotInMyBackYard, Sderot
Lights out in Tel Aviv?
AFP is reporting that in the event of a missile attack on Tel Aviv,
the entire city is to be evacuated.
Israel will evacuate the entire population of Tel Aviv if it is hit by missiles, particularly if they have unconventional warheads, the commander in charge of Israel's central region told Agence France Presse.
Colonel Adam Zusman, chief of the Home Front Command in Israel's Gush Dan region, which encompasses the city of Tel Aviv and its environs, said an attack on the center of the country would force massive evacuations.
"In case of a missile attack on the center of Israel, especially unconventional, the population from Tel Aviv and other cities will be evacuated and relocated in other areas of the country," Zusman told AFP in an interview at the weekend.
"Massive evacuations will take place in case of unconventional attacks and if buildings are destroyed by a missile."
Zusman said Israel continued to face serious threats from Iran and its allies, Hizbullah in Lebanon and Gaza's Hamas rulers.
"We estimate that in case of war, hundreds of missiles will hit Tel Aviv and its nearby cities. As a result of these attacks, there will be hundreds of Israeli casualties.
"In the next war, nobody will be able to drink a coffee in Dizengoff," he said, referring to a popular street in downtown Tel Aviv.
"Israeli civilians will have to face the threat. Today, every civilian is threatened in Israel."
I'm glad to see that the government has contingency plans in case of a war (although, frankly, they don't sound very realistic to me). But why weren't there any plans like that six years ago when the residents of the North were left to fend for themselves (and pay a fortune for hotels in the center of the country)? Why were there no such plans for Sderot in 2008-09? Oh, I forgot. The North and South are
NotInMyBackYard.
By the way, there's another interview with Zussman from a year and a half ago
here where he's not quite as fatalistic.
Labels: NotInMyBackYard, Sderot, Second Lebanon War, Tel Aviv
The Shalit family's PR campaign
Yes, of course, the Shalit family had a public relations campaign. Now that the terrorists for Gilad trade has been made,
the campaign has been exposed.
About four years ago, after year and a half of silence in the media and the sense that Gilad Shalit was beginning to be forgotten, Shalit's father, Noam, enlisted the help of a public relations firm. Until that moment, the Shalit family had operated without the close help of media consulting. Noam was determined to change the public discourse and offered to pay Tammy Shinkman, of the public relations firm Rimon-Cohen-Shinkman, as much as it took. "At first, they [the Shalit family] offered to pay us, and we of course, without second thoughts, said 'no chance.' We insisted that we would do it voluntarily," says Benny Cohen, a partner of the firm who ran the operational strategy and work behind the scenes of the Shalit campaign.
Immediately after the firm began working for the Shalit family, the media was flooded with countless messages and news items calling for Shalit's release. Meetings were held with newspapers and broadcast media in attempts to convince them to cover the soldier's struggle on their front pages and in their top headlines; politicians were asked to join the campaign; and celebrities decided to lock themselves in a makeshift jail cell, believed to be similar to what Shalit was kept in under Hamas captivity, in solidarity with the soldier.
The country was filled with billboards, flags and stickers, and pictures of the kidnapped soldier printed in the nation's colors - blue and white - became an iconic symbol. The Shalit family's struggle made headlines and brought crowds of supporters out into the streets. The change marked an unprecedented and historic shift.
"It is connected to the empowerment of emotions. The strategy was to make everyone empathize with the terrible fear that his or her child could leave and never return," Shinkman once said in an interview with the Globes newspaper. "The codes of communication are clear: You get a response when you reveal a personal side. The Shalit family had a hard time exposing itself to the public. They were an introverted family, and Noam himself is a bereaved sibling. And yet it was important to facilitate emotional involvement, to highlight the fact that every parent would expect this kind of public solidarity if it happened to them, and this was done by massively amplifying the dose of the family's exposure to the public."
"You have to remember that mutual responsibility for one another is part of the Israeli ethos and this does not exist in other cultures," Cohen adds. "It means that when we speak of one child, we are talking about everyone's child, not just some distant soldier fighting in Afghanistan. As soon as we realized this would be our strategy, we did a lot of work to keep the Shalit story alive, for example, during Purim, releasing photos of Gilad dressed as a clown when he was a child.
"There were many periods of quiet, so every few months we had to find some other idea that would push the media to give us coverage. There were two other sources that played a big role - the advertising agency Shalmor Avnon Amichai voluntarily produced movies, designs and slogans for us, for example the ad showing the word "help" written in handwriting; and also Kobi Gamliel who was able to get 800,000 people to change their profile pictures on Facebook."
What they did worked.
But what if the Shalit family had not been in the position to say "we'll pay you whatever it takes"? What if the Shalit family (like the leaders of the tent city this past summer) had not been from a socio-economic group that Israel's mass media loves? What if, for example, he had been a religious
Hesder soldier from Judea and Samaria or from a development town? I have my doubts whether the families of such soldiers would ever have attempted to do what the Shalits did in the first place, but Israeli society needs to do some soul-searching and ask itself those questions.
But
read the whole thing. It's fascinating to see how we were professionally manipulated.
Labels: for me and not for thee, Israeli media bias, Noam Shalit, NotInMyBackYard, terrorists for Gilad trade
The war book is ready
YNet reports that we were a lot closer to war last weekend than most Israelis realize.
The war book is ready.
When Defense Minister Ehud Barak arrived at the Defense Ministry Headquarters’ meeting room last Saturday, a thick war book titled “Operation South” was already awaiting his approval on his desk. In those hours, Israel was on the verge of embarking on war in the Gaza Strip.
The book did not pertain to a limited operation. The selected targets would have certainly prompted a major flare-up, including difficult regional implications. Just like in Operation Cast Lead, the political leadership granted immunity to no one in the Strip, regardless of his position or stature.
The detailed plans – the targets, scope, power and timing – would have left Hamas no breathing space and time to debate its response. It would have gone for the jackpot, right away. Indeed, Israel’s war plan included preparations for massive rocket fire from Gaza, including long-range missiles aimed at central Israel in general, and at Tel Aviv in particular.
Last weekend, the General Staff Headquarters looked like on the eve of war. Officials were working around the clock and sleeping in their offices. While formulating the plans, top officials recalled the curse of arrogance of the Second Lebanon War. Back then, the decision to launch a war was taken without sufficient preparation. The military and political leadership decided to deliver a blow, immediately, without taking into account the implications, the enemy’s response, the home front’s condition and the ability to counter rocket barrages. This time around, a full, detailed plan was drafted; it also included the IDF Home Front Command’s deployment. Only then was the scheme presented to the political echelon.
Another lesson learned from the miserable confrontation vis-à-vis Hezbollah is to start such assaults with great fire power, in order to minimize as much as is possible the home front’s suffering. This lesson was already implemented in Operation Cast Lead; in other words, the power utilized during Cast Lead was to constitute the starting point of the next operation.
So what happened? Why didn't we go to war? You can probably guess - fear of how it would look with the UN vote coming up next month. My own view is that we are putting way too much emphasis on a UN vote that is largely meaningless. But it seems like the political echelon is determined to sit pat and absorb the rockets (yes, there were more last night) at least until the UN vote passes.
Unless Tel Aviv is hit.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Gaza, Grad rocket, Katyusha rockets, NotInMyBackYard, Tel Aviv
When rockets fall in MyBackYard
Until Operation Cast Lead came along and changed the subject, I frequently wrote posts that argued that the government was ignoring the constant rocket attacks on Sderot and other towns within the 'Gaza envelope' because those areas were
NotInMyBackYard. For those of you who are relatively new, here's how the argument went:
Can anyone imagine Olmert reacting this way if it were Tel Aviv under fire? But Sderot is mostly poor, mostly Sephardi and mostly Likud voters, while Tel Aviv is mostly wealthy, mostly Ashkenazi and mostly votes for parties on the left. In other words, Sderot is NotInMyBackYard. And so Sderot suffered from one rocket after another last week - minus the 3000 residents who have left to become refugees like those expelled from Gaza, while Olmert sipped champagne with George and Condi.
Operation Cast Lead changed all that, and the reason it happened was that the 'Palestinians' started to hit cities like Ashkelon, which has an ethnic and class makeup that is much more similar to Tel Aviv than to Sderot, not to mention some very key pieces of infrastructure.
Unfortunately, the Olmert-Barak-Livni government didn't have the intestinal fortitude to do what needed to be done to finish the job in Gaza. That allowed Hamas to regroup, and now Hamas - and for that matter Hezbullah - are both able to hit Tel Aviv. Our home front command is now warning that when and if there is another war,
Tel Aviv and its environs will be hit.
"Dozens of missiles of all kinds will land on Tel Aviv, and therefore the estimation is that hundreds will die and structures and infrastructure will be destroyed," Colonel Adam Zussman was quoted by Army Radio as saying.
Zussman's comments came on the twentieth anniversary of the first Scud missiles falling on central Israel at the start of the first Gulf War in January 1991.
Zussman addressed the dangers of having Israel's major economic institutions such as the Stock Market in Ramat Gan under attack and the chance that such a situation could paralyze the nation during a war.
"I'm interested in our banks and economy continuing to function. We need to prepare alternatives as soon as as possible," said Zussman.
Zussman stated that he did not wish to alarm the residents of Tel Aviv and the Dan region, but rather to make them understand that the threat is a real possibility. This will compel the public to prepare their gas masks and bomb shelters, he added.
"There is no doubt that the first missile that lands in Tel Aviv will frighten those sitting in coffee shops today, but with our instructions and our citizens' good discipline, the estimation is that the initial shock will pass," Zussman stated.
The Home Front Command expressed that they do not support evacuating residents from central Israel in the event of a future war.
In the event of a war that hits Tel Aviv, the last one out will be asked to turn off the lights. There is little doubt in my mind that people will evacuate on their own, and Jerusalem and (ironically) Judea and Samaria will be mobbed because they will be the safest places to be.
Of one thing, however, you can rest assured: If Tel Aviv is hit, you will see a response that will make you all forget that
Richard Goldstone was ever
here.
While Sderot sustained rocket attacks for eight years until the military and political conditions “were ripe” for a retaliatory strike in Gaza, Tel Aviv will not sustain such attacks for eight days; not even for eight hours.
In order to put an immediate end to missile attacks on central Israel – regardless of where they originated: Syria, Lebanon, or Gaza – we will see massive retribution that will make Operation Cast Lead appear like a tiny scratch in the Middle East’s violent history.
...
Israel’s enemies are counting on Goldstone: They will fire missiles at Tel Aviv, and the world will stop Israel from punishing them for deterrence purposes. Yet they’re wrong.
Israel would not be able to afford to wait for its ground forces to successfully operate in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, or any other site in order to curb the fire. Time is a critical element, and a successful ground operation is a matter of days or weeks, which means more casualties and more critical hits sustained by the home front. The hundreds of rockets that will penetrate through the Israeli-American defense systems will require Israel to respond immediately.
And here the formula is cruel and simple: The more effective the rocket terror war will be, the less “proportional” the response would be.
Under such circumstances, we will see a massive retaliatory blow, from the air and from the ground, targeting various infrastructures and sites and being painful enough to prompt the enemy to hold its fire. If the world expects Israel to only hit military targets and chase every rocket or launching site, it expects Israel to commit suicide.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Kassam rockets, NotInMyBackYard, Richard Goldstone, Sderot, Tel Aviv
