Since the Israeli actions against Hamas in Gaza began on the 26th of December, many people have asked me my opinion on what is happening. I have many thoughts about what is happening, but for once, I can happily say that many of my views have been echoed in the media already. Despite the fact that although the world usually aligns itself against Israel, which we can see has already happened in this case, there have been many articles written that support the actions that Israel is taking.
A few of my favourite are as follows:
and another Burston article with regard to analogies of what is happening today:
The last great one, is by Lorne Gunter from the National Post:
Alright, now my opinions:
To begin with, I am extremely proud and relieved in a sense by what Israel is doing, and I stand firm in my conviction of being a proud and passionate Zionist. Though the word Zionist is often tainted by the propaganda and rants by the far left and other opponents of what the Jewish state stands for, I believe that Zionism represents a beautiful, legitimate concept of uniting a people with a land. Zionism represents the Jewish people's yearning for a state of their own, in peaceful and secure borders, something that we remarkably are still struggling for today. Most importantly, Zionism stands for human rights, something that Hamas certainly cannot understand, and something that we take great pride in. What is occurring today is Gaza is Israel's demonstration of their ability to defend themselves when attacked, and it is unfortunate that there are many innocent Palestinian civilians who are caught up in the crossfire.
As always, my thoughts are not only with Israel and the Israelis, but also with the Palestinian people. I dislike when people paint the Palestinians with a broad brush. There are approximately 5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, 1.5 million living in Gaza. They have certainly made mistakes, but these mistakes have largely been made by their leaders throughout their history, and I have an immense amount of sympathy for them. Nowhere else in the world are there refugee camps that are roughly 60 years old, and nowhere else in the world is purchasing rockets more important than purchasing food. The Palestinian people deserve much better, and they must rid themselves of Hamas. Hamas for years has taken on a dual-role: social organization, and terror organization. It is true that for a while they provided school and social services for the Palestinian people. It cannot however be more clear than it is today that the terrorism wing of its adminstration has overshadowed everything else, and Hamas has turned into the Palestinians' Angel of Death.
It is very clear today, that the Palestinians have erred once again in deciding to embrace Hamas. One of the primary messages of Hamas has been that they will always win against Israel. For two reasons: If Israel does nothing against them, they will grow and survive, which is in itself a success against the "Zionist Enemy"; the second reason is that if Israel does strike at Hamas, they will shield themselves with the use of either civilians or religious institutions, definitely resulting in the deaths of innocents or the destruction of a mosque, another victory to Hamas since the world will naturally condemn Israel. If you look closely at what is happening today with the rallies, people only hold anti-Israel rallies, and not pro-Palestinian rallies and certainly no pro-Hamas rallies. A pro-Hamas rally would be remarkable to see, because no one can seriously look at Hamas as an organization or political party and believe that they have the best interests of their citizens in mind.
After the Lebanon War in 2006, I wrote an article that was pretty inflammatory and was not received too well by mainstream Jewish organizations. I stated that perhaps Israel needs to review the way it acted in Lebanon and realize that they are not fighting legitimate, sovereign states. In Lebanon, we were fighting Hizbullah, a terrorist organization, that does not believe in the rules of war, is not a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, and fights dirty. As a result of Israel attempting to play fair and minimize civilian deaths, well over 100 soldiers were killed, and many will say that Israel indeed lost that war (if they didn't lose, then it is certainly unclear who won). I advocated that perhaps when fighting Hamas or Hizbullah, Israel has to change their tactics and not necessarily try to take the moral highground. They need to look at their priorities:
1. Protect Israelis
2. Destroy the enemy
3. Prevent unnecessary civilian death
It seems in this war (let's call a spade a spade) that the Israelis have indeed balanced out their priorities and have changed the way they have conducted themselves. They said no more to the rocket attacks from Hamas, and began to destroy the Hamas infrastructure in Gaza. Hamas does not play by the rules of war, they hide behind civilians in every possible sense, they launch rockets from houses, hide caches of weapons in schools and kindergartens, they put civilians on top of buildings that are being targeted, and they celebrate when Israel kills Palestinian civilians. It is therefore obvious that Israeli airstrikes will witness collateral damage, but that is the fault of Hamas. I will repeat: Hamas is to blame for the high death toll of the Palestinians. Israel has gone to lengths to ensure that civilians are not killed in strikes against the Hamas infrastructure. They have dropped leaflets written in Arabic warning Palestinian civilians to leave specific areas that are going to be bombed. This gives the Palestinians the option to leave and not put themselves in the way of danger, and it also, unfortunately, warns the militants that Israel is going to strike. This demonstrates that Israel is willing to sacrifice the element of surprise in order to minimize the number of civilian casualties because they understand the psyche of Hamas. The other thing that Israel has done is to actually phone Palestinian families in the West Bank and warn them that the area they are living in is going to be targeted. If the family is not home to answer the phone, the Israelis leave a voice message. No one can seriously argue that Israel purposely targets civilians. It is simply unrealistic. Israeli action in Gaza has been much more successful than in Lebanon because they have been careful, but they have weighed their priorities. They know they have to seriously cripple Hamas, and they have the ability to do so. I was hoping that they would not send in ground forces, but there apparently is only so much that the Israeli Air Force can do. Now that ground forces have been sent in, it is clear that Gaza is an extremely dangerous environment, and it is unfortunate that 5 soldiers have already been killed (3 of which unfortunately died from a friendly fire incident from an Israeli tank). Priorities have changed, and we can already see the sucess of this operation.
An issue that has been addressed by a number of journalists already is this idea of proportionalism. Many people are concerned that Israeli is overreacting, and they note that regardless of the number of rockets that have been launched into Israel, the level of destruction and the number of civilians in Israel pales in comparison to the amount of death and destruction caused by Israelis strikes in Gaza as a response (I would refer you to the article above by Matt Gurney).
To apply something I have learned in law school: to commit a crime, there must be two factors at play: Mens Rea (guilty mind) and Actus Reus (guilty act). The result can largely be irrelevant if these two factors can be demonstrated. The goal of Hamas is to destroy Israel and kill Israelis. They do not hide this fact, and they declare it proudly every day. They state that their rockets will rain down on Israeli homes and cities and that they will kill Israeli men, women and children, all of whom are seen as the enemy of the Palestinians. They are not interested in speaking to Israel, in dealing with Israel through back channels, and they dream of a world without Israel. They launch rockets to achieve this goal. Unfortunately for them, they rockets are crude, they have poor aim, and only rarely do they hit something significant. This does not mean that the guilty mind is not there (the act is clearly evident). If they had better weapons, they would be firing these at Israel, and I can guarantee that unlike Israel, they would not be targeting Israeli military installations. As they have demonstrated through speech and actions, they would target civilian centers, and try to inflict the maximum amount of civilian death. As Matt Gurney states in his article, Israel fortunate has better weapons than Hamas, and better aim, and that is why there is a higher death toll. It drives me crazy when people only look at the number of people dead. If there is one thing I have learned in law school, it is that intent is an extremely important factor when it comes to actions, and to quote the common analogy floating around these days, if someone comes to you with a gun and tries to shoot and kill you but keeps missing, doesn't mean you should not use everything in your power to ensure that they will stop. If you don't stop them, then there is a chance that eventually they will kill you and this is not a risk that ANYONE would take.
What makes me the most upset about this conflict is the double standard applied to Israel. I have said this far too many times, and I stand firmly behind my words: this double standard is a result of the fact that Israel is a Jewish state. For anyone looking for cryptic messages, let me be perfectly blunt: I am calling the majority of the attacks on Israel anti-Semitic.
As I say always, it is crucial to understand the differences between being anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-Semitic. I usually do equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. Zionism is the right of the Jews to have an autonomous, sovereign state of their own in secure borders. If you do not believe that the Jewish people have a right to a state like Israel, then you are anti-Semitic. Perhaps you don't think it should be exactly where it is today, maybe you think it should be in Uganda, whatever. If you do not believe that the Jews are entitled to a state of their own, then anti-Zionism = anti-Semitism.
The difference arises with regard to being anti-Israel. Anyone can be anti-Israel. You may not agree with the policies of the Israeli government. You may not like what the state does or what the state stands for, and you may not like that there is a Jewish state with Jewish values and ideals when many people in the state are not Jews. Fine. You may also not like what is happening to the Palestinian people, and you may say that Israel is an enemy of human rights. You have an opinion, and you have the right to criticize anything freely, of course. My problem is when you criticize ONLY Israel. My blood boils when people on the far left, and people who claim that they believe in human rights ONLY direct their criticism at Israel. We are living in a world that is certainly not lacking destruction, and there are many countries to criticize when it comes to human rights such as China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, to name a few. I adamently believe that if you only criticize Israel for purported human rights abuses and do not mention any other problem in the world, then you are an anti-Semite.
The blatant double standard employed in the discourse regarding this conflict demonstrates that anti-Semitism is alive and well. The anti-Israel shield is employed by those who have anti-Semitic views but understand that to be labelled anti-Semitic is taboo and politically incorrect these days. For this reason, they have hid under the anti-Israel shield that is employed by many individuals, organizations, and even institutions like the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, in order to state their dislike of the Jewish state 'legitimately'.
To believe that anti-Semitism is no longer relevant in the world is an understatement, and it must be understood that it is alive and well in another form, that of anti-Israel sentiment.
Furthermore, the fact that some people can not place any blame on Hamas whatsoever for what is currently happening in Gaza boggles my mind. This is an example of blaming only Israel, and it is an example of the way that rationale and reason breaks down when the enemy is the Jewish state. I am proud of the way that many journalists and politicians have looked at this conflict in a rational way and have assigned the correct amount of blame to Hamas and their supporters, but it seriously makes me question my sometimes unquestioning faith in mankind when I see rallies that believe that the true enemy is Israel. This is hateful and incorrect.
No one should turn on the news at any time during this conflict and take pleasure in the fact that it is happening. Often we forget that there is a second part to the "To save a life is to save the entire world," and that is "to destroy a life is to destroy the world." Death and destruction should never be the answer, and no one should be looking at this conflict with any joy. Certainly the Palestinians in Gaza are not, and most importantly neither are the Israelis. Golda Meir once stated something like, "Israel does not take pleasure in a military victory, we take pleasure when a new kind of tomato is cultivated in the Negev." Israel is not rejoicing because of what is happening in Gaza, nor should it be. Nevertheless, a country that is provoked will respond, and it is unreasonable to expect that when rockets are landing on and around your citizens day after day, that you can sit and do nothing. It is expected that a country will defend its citizens first, and Israel is doing the right thing.
Like many, I do not apologize for what is being done in Gaza. Hamas continues to launch rockets because no one has stood up to defy them yet. The Palestinian civilians in Gaza still somehow support this regime that is slowly killing them from the inside, and everytime there is an anti-Israel rally in the streets of Toronto, London, New York, or even Cairo that does not condemn Hamas for what it has done to the Palestinian people in Gaza, it is a victory for hatred. Hamas is an organization that must be swiftly destroyed, and there will be no peaceful resolution until that is achieved.
I strongly believe in peace in the Middle East, and despite what you may think about what I have written, I am a moderate when it comes to this conflict. I believe peace is possible, and I believe that left to their own devices, free of political parties, or the pressure from the game of politics, the people would choose peace. I apportion most of the blame on the Palestinian leaders, who have used their people as merely pieces in a game that is designed to win over the sympathy of the world while demonizing Israel. For too long, the Palestinians have merely been pawns in a political game played not only by the Palestinian leaders, but by many of the Arab leaders as well. People are quick to denounce Israel for what is happening in Gaza, but they should remember that Israel left Gaza, yet still supplies the people there with food, gas, electricity, and medical supplies. Egypt could very easily be doing this, but they wiped their hands of Gaza long ago and have not looked back since. What other country in the world would continue to supply all these vital supplies while still coming under constant bombardment of rocket attacks by an enemy that has declared its unrelenting efforts to destroy the Jewish State once and for all? Only Israel. Many Arab leaders claim to stand up for the Palestinian people, yet very few of them, who we all know have the ability and finances to help the Palestinians immensely, have all but ignored the plight of these people. I do not support every single action of the Israeli government without question, but I can comfortably say that Israel is practically more helpful to the Palestinians than the rest of the Arab world, who, let's face it, is just talk. Its time for a change.
There is much to be said, but this is getting quite long so I will close here. As I said before, I believe that peace is possible, but it must be seen as such by those in power. Peace can easily be cultivated in the hearts and minds of people, but they must be exposed to the environment in which this is possible. Hamas is a poison to the Palestinian people, and I hope that there will soon be a realization that this is true. When this is so, and when the dust settles, hopefully people can come together and create a long lasting peace that will ensure that people live together, peacefully, for the next 60 years.
In the meantime, I hope that this war ends soon, and I wish for the speedy destruction of Hamas. Outside the region, I condemn the hypocrisy of the left, and for the sake of all those people suffering around the world in countries who have truly turned their backs on human rights, I dream that one day the same amount of attention is given to your plight, and that the same demands are made of your governments for change, reconciliation, and peace.
