Myths About Israel and Gaza

Lorelei Kelly of the Huffington Post has an entry that is typical of the left's reaction to Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip.

Remember that the attack was provoked by constant missile attacks coming from Gaza and being fired into civilian areas of Israel. Also remember that Hamas fires these missiles from civilian areas specifically so that reprisals will hurt non-combatants.

Kelly says:

"Defense" doesn't mean the same thing when one antagonist is a state and the other a networked organization. It's like the US Army fighting the Salvation Army. It's like Bin Laden versus the USA. The same sets of policies and tools don't work anymore. They make things worse.

Hamas is not a networked organization. They are the elected government of Gaza. This is different from the terrorists firing missiles from Lebanon.

Why any of us ever believed that bombing terrified civilians would somehow inspire them to overthrow their horrid leaders is beyond me. And why any government thinks that killing lots of civilians on the side where the leaders use civilians as human shields will somehow be a dealbreaker has got to be the new definition of insanity.

From this you would think that Israel is indiscriminately firing missiles at Gaza. Actually, Israel has targeted their response about as precisely as is possible. At the same time, Israel is trying to convince the people of Gaza that their government got them into this mess. The people of Gaza elected a government that promised the destruction of Israel. You have to expect some sort of reprisal when they act on their promise.

It rings pretty hollow when those of us viewing can not only see who is doing the killing, but who is doing the dying. Policemen? Shoppers? University personnel? United Nations employees? Little kids? 3 Israelis vs. 300 Palestinians?

Like many on the left, Kelly seems to see all deaths as civilians. Current news reports indicate that only 60 of the 360 deaths so far are civilian. That means that more than 80% of those killed are combatants. Not bad when you remember that Hamas hides inside the civilian population.

In less than two decades, the measures of national security have gone from being rational, linear and technological, to random, chaotic and very human. Those who want to survive need to modernize their toolkit accordingly: More persuasion, less coercion. More prevention, less reaction. More participation, less exclusion. More people, less machines, More life strategies, less death strategies.

Kelly has totally lost it here. An organization that is dedicated to destroying Israel is attacking them regularly and she wants Israel to make nice in the hope that it will be reciprocated. In fact, Israel already tried making nice when it handed control of Gaza back to the Palistinians. This was going to be the showcase for how other occupied areas would be given back to the Palestinians. Instead it became a new front. It was seen as an act of weakness and an invitation for attacks. Now both sides are paying the price for that.