Israel’s Disproportionate Response
I condemn Israel’s disproportionate attack on Hamas because, so far, it has only lasted a few days and I would like to see a proportionate response that terrifies Hamas for eight years, the years that have filled Sderot and neighboring towns with nightmares, death, amputations and trauma coming from rockets and mortars fired from Gaza.
Perhaps a proportionate response would have Gaza’s leaders fearful of being killed every day for the next two years, as Gilad Shalit has been terrified of torture and death every day for the last two years in his solitary Gaza dungeon.
A proportionate response would have Hamas mothers and fathers as fearful for their children’s lives as Shalit’s mother and father have been fearful for Gilad’s life.
A proportionate response would have Gaza’s children crying for their mommies and daddies, the way at a Hamas pageant earlier in December a Palestinian actor dressed as Shalit got down on his knees, mock-begging, ”I miss my Ima and Abba,” while the Gaza crowds laughed.
A proportionate response would so intimidate Hamas that they will grovel and, as a “gesture,” send cocoa and jam into Sderot, the way Israel has groveled in response to rockets from Hamas, sending cocoa and jam into Gaza. Imagine Churchill sending cocoa and jam into Berlin as a humanitarian gesture after – during – the bombing of London.
A proportionate response would be one that will convince Hamas there is no military solution, no solution but surrender. They can then call surrender a “peace process,” if they like, just as the mostly unanswered attacks on Jews have convinced some Jews that there is no military solution but surrender to any and all demands. They suggest a euthanasia by the euphemism of “peace process,” that Israel become what some are already planning to call “Canaan,” a non-Jewish state of all its citizens.
A proportionate response will convince Palestinians that if they insist that the starting point to peace negotiations is that no Jew be allowed to live on the West Bank, the proportionate response will be that Israel’s starting point in negotiations is that no Arab be allowed to live in Tel Aviv. Horrible to contemplate? Fine, let there be a proportionate negotiation.
A proportionate response to Hamas, one might gather from the European scolds, would be as if the United States, after Pearl Harbor, would bomb just a few Japanese fishing boats and call it a day, believing the war would have ended with that.
A proportionate response will begin to remind Jews that there is no peace process like victory, just as Israel’s decade of disproportionate restraint and self-doubt has convinced young Palestinians that their victory is inevitable, like Aryan youth in 1933 singing “Tomorrow Belongs To Me.”
Let it be said to Israelis and Jews everywhere, in the words of Churchill: “You have enemies? Good. It means you’ve stood up for something.” But remember: A war (and Hamas has repeatedly said this is war) is never won if you are disproportionately kind to someone who wants to destroy you and, failing in that, demands with indignation that you not destroy him.
When meeting that enemy, be proportionate.
December 29th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
What an outstanding article. Well said and well done!
December 30th, 2008 at 5:24 am
Wow! Well written and oh so true! I guess that we are back to agreeing again…100%
January 1st, 2009 at 5:51 am
Well said!
January 5th, 2009 at 2:28 am
What a wonderfully written piece-I could not agree with you more. I am reang this for the first time just after the ground action started in gaza. Let’s see what happens….. I believe it was Golda Meir who said (paraphrasing) that the only hope for peace would be when the Arabs began to love their children more than they hate ours…. nothing has changed, has it?
January 5th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
WOW!!! When i first read the headline, i thought, ‘here we go again”. Someone who lives in the safety of the US condemning Israel for protecting herself and telling her how to run her business. I have read articles recently in Haaretz and although i am not at all a violent person, i would love to smack the guy who wrote them. HIs main reason in life it seems to to make the soldiers feel that they are murderers. Thank you for finally speaking the truth about the fact that Israel has had to endure tremendous hardships, more than any other country or its people would have tolerated for days let alone years. Here is a country that even overextends itself and taking in hurt palestinian children to Israeli hospitals for treatment. Amazingly, these are probably the same children who will grow to be suicide bombers and try to blow up the same doctors who saved their lives.
January 5th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
I could not have said it better myself - the only thing I would add is that we should kidnap Hamas leader’s children and send them back in body bags the way Hamas does with Israeli soilders. Most importantly, we should trade their bodies without telling the families that they are dead for Israeli prisoners. Remember, all is fair in war and NEVER, EVER AGAIN!!!!
January 5th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Thank you for a well written and to the point article. Articles, such as this one, need to be circulated and visible in mainstream secular media. People who are on the fence about or are opposed to Israel’s actions of self defense would benefit from truisms in articles such as this one.
January 5th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Excellent points (how come I didn’t think of this???) B”SD
Ra’anan
Jerusalem
January 5th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
kill the enemies of jews
January 5th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Very good. It is laughable that they are calling Israel’s response disproportionate. Would FDR’s response to the attack on Pearl Harbor be disproportionate because he did not limit America’s response to killing 2800 Japanese? Is Bush’s response to 9/11 disproportionate becasue he didn’t limit America to killing 3,000 Talibans?
“Disproportionate” under International Law means disproportionate in proportion to the force that is necessary to reach the goal of enabling people to live in peace. It does not just mean “revenge”.
January 5th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
I keep asking if anyone has the formula for propotionate responses to missile attacks.
In 1962 when Cuba wanted to set up missiles JFK responded. He did not wait for the missiles to be set up or for a first strike. He acted to forestall the whole matter. Had Cuba managed to fire off a missile, that island would be still a smoldering cinder today.
January 5th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Thank you. Yes.
January 5th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Sh’koyach, Jonathan.
Yori
January 6th, 2009 at 12:25 am
Your comments are spurious and weak, at best. Israel’s goal, and and appropriate one, is to eliminate the enemy, not to placate the American Jewish Press
January 6th, 2009 at 2:22 am
I truly believe it is time for man to stop cursing each other. Let the ties that bind us, and the ropes that blind us be released. Which will allow man to live humanely. Let us live spiritually. Together, without lies about each other. Open arms for each other as we will stand in awe of the great awesome power of which we all point in our own direction which ironically points to something greater than ourselves. My prayer for 2009 / 5767 is that we all get over ourselves. We let go of our egos and realize we are all flesh and blood we all die the same way.
January 8th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Very good and interesting points, the one thing i recommend not be forgotten though is that there is a fine line between complete victory and genocide. As hateful and violent as some of these people are, there are some who just want to live and let live. I agree that while all available military targets should be taken out, civilian life should be preserved.