Israel acts in defense of citizens
Hannah Alexander
Issue date: 1/9/09 Section: Ed-Op
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This will not be the first time that Israel has defended itself to ensure the security and safety of its citizens while getting criticized and labeled by the media. Israel has been called a "terrorist" state, one that uses a "disproportionate" amount of force against its enemies. Those two labels that continue to appear in the media are a neither accurate nor fair depiction of the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces. And while the world judges Israel, especially with the current situation in Gaza, the world needs to take a closer look.
A Jan. 2 article posted on Yahoo News was titled "Civilians take brunt of 7th day of Gaza offensive." Even before reading the content of the article, the reader is already led to assume that the IDF is targeting Gaza's civilian population. While a percentage of the deaths are civilians, the majority are members of Hamas, the terrorist organization who was voted into power and took control of the Gaza strip.
This occurred following Israel's controversial disengagement in the summer of 2005, which was supposed to bring Israelis and Palestinians closer to peace. However, no sense of peace could be achieved with the daily firing of rockets into southern Israel, specifically towards Sderot, less than two miles from the Gaza border. The rockets can now travel farther and have also been launched into the cities of Beer Sheva, Ashkelon and Ashdod.
In the months leading up to the IDF military operation in Gaza, a strategic plan was formed in order to target and destroy Hamas's infrastructure, a complicated and difficult task since Hamas has infiltrated into civilian neighborhoods. Therefore, a zero number of civilian casualties were unavoidable for the IDF but kept as low as possible. The news is also not mentioning how Hamas uses Palestinian civilians as human shields by working out of schools, mosques and other community buildings.
Another reason that Israel decided to proceed with its military operation was to destroy the underground tunnels between Egypt and Gaza. These were created by Hamas and allow for the smuggling of weaponry provided by Iran, which is what has provided Hamas the ability to launch rockets into Israel almost constantly.
Although these rockets have not caused a high number of Israeli civilian deaths, they are targeted at civilians. While the IDF is responsible for the civilian deaths of Palestinians, its main goal is not to kill as many civilians as possible; the main goal is to take out Hamas and all other linked terrorist organizations. The opposite is true for Hamas, who targets Israeli civilians and whose main goal is to, in the words of the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "wipe Israel off the map."
When Operation Cast-Lead began, the UN immediately responded by urging a cease-fire. However, cease-fire agreements are something that Hamas refuses to keep. Prior to Operation Cast-Lead, there was a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza from June through November 2008 during which a total of 1,500 rockets were shot into southern Israel from Gaza.
Although the number of rockets diminished during the cease-fire, such an agreement does not entail simply lowering the number of rockets - they should stop completely. The day after the cease-fire ended, an estimated 80 rockets were shot in a single day mostly towards Sderot, a city whose people live under constant fear and are unable to carry on with their normal everyday lives.
One reason that people view Israel as an aggressor, using "disproportionate" force against Gaza, is the number of fatalities. As the death count in Gaza grows, Israeli civilian casualties are at a minimum, but the reason is often overlooked: Israel's level of security for its civilians is like nowhere else in the world.
When a rocket is shot from Gaza into Israel, the "Tzeva Adom" or "red alert" goes off giving people 15 seconds to find a bomb shelter. The Tzeva Adom is able to detect a rocket launching when its radar senses the heat on the ground. These rockets are cheap to produce and are becoming more sophisticated, causing more significant damage.
According to the Sderot Media Center, most families do not receive compensation from the government for a year for damage done to their homes. As an extra precaution most Israeli families who have two-story houses no longer use the second floor. Playgrounds at the schools often have structures shaped like caterpillars which are bomb shelters for children.
Furthermore, the majority of deaths caused by the IDF are members of the Hamas regime that devote their lives to the destruction of Israel. This is a terrorist organization with which peace can never be achieved because for Hamas there is no such thing as negotiating. Israel's Operation Cast-Lead is not a statement telling the world it does not want peace - it is a necessary military move in order to further the protection of its citizens who deserve to live without hearing the Tzeva Adom go off up to 80 times a day.
The reality is that Israel is a beautiful country, one that I've been privileged to see on four separate occasions. It is the only democracy among its Arab neighbors and has attempted to reach peace several times, especially by giving up more and more land to the Palestinians. However, trying to reach peace for Israel has backfired with Gaza under the control of Hamas, and Israel, as a threatened nation, is not going to sit and watch its citizens live in constant fear. Israel can always try to negotiate peace in the future, but its first and foremost responsibility is to protect its people.
Hannah Alexander is a sophomore majoring in communications. She can be reached at op-ed@thetriangle.org.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
PC
posted 1/12/09 @ 10:36 PM EST
Great article. Based on this week's Triangle, Hannah is the only one who knows how to write.
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