Jan 13 2009
Israeli Jews Express Strong Support for Gaza War
The Israeli government may be facing a barrage of criticism from the international community over its ongoing war in Gaza, but it can at least count on strong support from its citizens on the home front.
Ethan Bronner of the New York Times reports that Israeli Jews have rallied around their government and military even as the civilian death toll among Palestinians has reached alarming heights.
Well over 900 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed since the war began a little over two weeks ago. At least half of these fatalities are said to be civilians, including approximately 75 women, 97 elderly people, and 292 children. Approximately 4,000 Palestinians are said to be injured. Four Israelis – one soldier and three civilians – are reported to have died from rockets fired into Israel by the terrorist group Hamas. Also, nine Israeli soldiers have been killed and 98 have been wounded since the Israeli Defense Forces launched its ground invasion into Gaza on January 3.
Yet, despite these wildly disparate casualty tolls, Bronner reports that within Israel “Voices of dissent in this country have been rare. And while tens of thousands have poured into the streets of world capitals demonstrating against the Israeli military operation, antiwar rallies here have struggled to draw 1,000 participants. The Peace Now organization has received many messages from supporters telling it to stay out of the streets on this one.”
“It is very frustrating for us not to be understood,” remarked Yoel Esteron, editor of a daily business newspaper called Calcalist. “Almost 100 percent of Israelis feel that the world is hypocritical. Where was the world when our cities were rocketed for eight years and our soldier was kidnapped? Why should we care about the world’s view now?”
“Israel, which is sometimes a fractured, bickering society, has turned in the past couple of weeks into a paradigm of unity and mutual support,” Bronner continues. “Flags are flying high. Celebrities are visiting schoolchildren in at-risk areas, soldiers are praising the equipment and camaraderie of their army units, and neighbors are worried about families whose fathers are on reserve duty. Ask people anywhere how they feel about the army’s barring journalists from entering Gaza and the response is: let the army do its job.”
In addition to feeling misunderstood by the rest of the world, many Israelis fervently believe the IDF “works harder than most to spare civilians, holding their fire in many more cases than using it.”
Since Hamas fighters employ age-old guerrilla tactics such as blending in with the local population and booby-trapping centers of civilian life such as apartment buildings, schools, and even zoos, they are often viewed by Israelis as being largely responsible for the civilian death toll. Israelis also view the controversial war in Gaza as a war of necessity, as Hamas has long declared its goal to be nothing less than the destruction of the Jewish State.
“This is a just war and we don’t feel guilty when civilians we don’t intend to hurt get hurt, because we feel Hamas uses these civilians as human shields,” says Elliot Jager, editorial page editor of The Jerusalem Post. “We do feel bad about it, but we don’t feel guilty.”
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Oh boy, here comes Oldfart again, slamming the Jews for whatever he can.
I think that war is hell, and it ain’t a pretty sight. People die. Kids die. Wives lose their husbands, husbands lose their wives, parents lose their kids. Sometimes whole families die.
Ask the Germans, the Japanese, the Poles, the Czechs, the French, the English - hell ask anybody whose country has been embroiled in modern warfare in the twentieth century.
Heck, our own country deliberately bombed the German city of Dresden back to the stone age in a single night and killed more civilians than there are Palestinians, many of whom were never found because of the intensity of the fire. I’d bet that there were thousands of children in Dresden that night.
Sorry, but I go with the Israelis on this one. If Hamas wasn’t deliberately targeting Israeli civilians, they’d have a point. But they ARE, and they ARE using their OWN civilians as shields. Which is, by the way, a violation of the Geneva convention.
Not that the world cares, it is only violations of such by the Israelis that count.
I think the extremists on both sides are to blame for these endless wars. It’s a shame other people (like us) have to get sucked into them.
I second your opinion, animal. I don’t like giving credit to either side - they’re both to blame in my eyes.
Of course all too often people take that as I’m supporting Hamas.
No, I’m just not supporting Israel, and I want the violence to end.
Thanks to the Zionist Lobby here in the U.S. (both Gentile and Jewish), you can’t say ANYTHING critical about Israel without being accused of harboring anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist sympathies. Pathetic.
Agreed, you are slamming Israel.
But you very conveniently forget to mention the very detestable tactics that Hamas is using that has in part prompted Israel to embark on their present course. That is one thing that make YOU look like an Israel hater. You almost never mention the tactics of their enemies.
I will agree that Israel’s tactics are little better at times, and have played their part in the lack of peace in the region. I have said that before and will most likely say it again in the future.
But at times, I have to call em like I see em, and at this time, the best way to stop the current round of violence is for Hamas to either stop the rockets or have their ability to launch them destroyed; they have been shooting them into Israel for eight years with no discernible positive results.
Sooner or later, one has to look at one’s tactics and realize that you are doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same results. Eight years of rocket fire without a lessening of the Israeli blockade should tell somebody that there should be a change in tactics to get a different result.
If of course, a lessening of the blockade is the desired result, and not an Israeli incursion into Gaza.
For years the Palestinians have rarely failed to miss a chance to miss a chance for peace. Sooner or later, that seems to turn into a discernible policy and not just the result of stupidity or ignorance.
So, when are you going to link to a map showing all the locations where Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups have illegally targeted Israeli civilians through suicide bombers, terrorist attacks on schools or rocket fire?
Until you do, you have NO right to accuse anyone else of being biased.
“Because, IT NEVER GETS INTO THE ISRAELI-CONTROLLED AMERICAN MEDIA.”
To say nothing of the Israel-controlled U.S. Congress.
I rest my case, you ARE exhibiting a bias against Israel. You cannot say a single bad word against Hamas or any terrorist group fighting them.
Pot, kettle, black.
And you’ve read enough of my posts, particularly on TTC, that you should know that this statement, “Nothing will ever convince you, R, that Israel is anything other than the Savior of the Desert because you are a true believer in whatever AIPAC tells you to believe.” is pure bullsh*t. You KNOW, or should, IF you’ve truly READ any of what I’ve written, that statement is not right, and I have criticized Israeli policy plenty of times, and have noted in any number of posts that there is plenty of what they have done that only exacerbates and makes the situation worse.
So don’t tell me that when I call YOU biased and one-sided, based upon biased and one-sided posts in this thread, that I am also biased, because that’s crap and you know it, as does politicalanimal.
If you can, defend the charge I have made against YOU, by posting quotes to counter my arguments.
Don’t try to denigrate MY charges about YOU by turning the tables.