In
the days when Hamas and Islamic Jihad were lobbing home made mortars and
Ketushah rockets into Israel by the hundreds, things were bad. It was obvious
that normal life in places like Sderot in the south near the Gaza border
required action to halt the rocket fire. One could make the argument, and I
heard it frequently, that these rockets and mortars did little damage and that
Israel’s response to those attacks of launching Operation Cast Lead was more
than should have been acceptable.
Over
the past three years, Israel repeatedly noted that no other nation in the world
would even be asked to tolerate such barrages, much less be accused of
overreacting when attempting to halt them. For Israel, the threat of rocket
attacks makes life difficult to bear and, for the residents of Sderot, in the
minds of many, action on the scale of Operation Cast Lead was required to
prevent them.
Yet
also over the past three years, it was made abundantly clear that the
introduction of longer range Iranian made rockets and missiles would bring much
more of the Israeli population into the cross hairs and pose a much bigger
threat. In fact, the introduction of those weapons significantly escalates the
conflict because while Israel cannot long tolerate the fire of inaccurate short
range weapons that do little damage in relatively sparsely populated areas, the
threat of longer range and more powerful weapons fire being regularly launched
against major population centers is an existential threat.
Knowing
that Hamas and Islamic Jihad had acquired stockpiles of longer range missiles
and launchers, phase 2 of Operation Pillar of Defense on Wednesday, was to
target twenty sites related to them.
Here
is the dilemma. As long as Hamas is a petty military organization, as long as it
fires crude weaponry against Israel, it offers those who hate Israel the ability
to pretend that Hamas is a ragtag bunch of people fighting for something other
than a Jewish body-count. They can imagine Hamas to be impoverished and
pathetic, overwhelmed by Israel’s military might. They can proclaim a vision of
Hamas as David to Israel’s Goliath, throwing rocks at tanks.
But
that is far from today’s reality. Today, Hamas is firing anti-tank rockets at
tanks, using rocket propelled grenades RPGs against Israeli jeeps, and firing
much more sophisticated and far more damaging Iranian made rockets intentionally
against Israeli population centers. This is no longer a border conflict that
affects a small percentage of Israel’s population. Today, more than half of
Israel is under threat and that is intolerable by any measure for the Israeli
government. This is a conflict between Israel and an Iranian backed and well
armed militia bent on slaughtering any Jews that it can.
Yesterday,
Hamas launched what it is calling “M75″ missiles named for Maqadma, one of the
founders of Hamas with 75 indicating the weapon’s range in kilometers, 75 to 80
kilometers. 75 Kilometers is 46 miles. Tel Aviv is 44 miles away. Ramat Gan,
Israel’s high tech center, is 45 miles away. The center of Jerusalem is 48 miles
away, its suburbs closer.
Iran and
Hizballah have been smuggling Iranian made long range weapons into
Gaza. Inoted
in my analysis of the
beginning of Operation Pillar of Defense that these Iranian made weapons were
being manufactured and stored at the Yarmouk Weapons Factory in Khartoum, Sudan
before being shipped out by Iran to Sinai and points further north. Some reports
actually have Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops in Gaza aiding in their
deployment against Israel.
All
this said, what is going on now is not
like previous conflicts with Gaza. Iran and Hamas have escalated it to
an existential
crisis for Israel and it
will require a massive response. No ceasefire can be possible under these
circumstances and Israeli officials have repeatedly stated that in recent days.
Israel cannot allow the current level of advanced weaponry present in Gaza to
remain there, much less to increase and be used against its civilian
population.
We
pray for Shalom, well-being, for all of our many friends in Israel and for peace
at last to descend upon the region, but know too well that the days ahead will
be ones filled more with violence and challenge than with peace and contentment.
Oseh Shalom Bimromav…
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