Amichai Magen: Israel Has a Duty to Protect Its Citizens From Attack

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When Barack Obama visited the southern Israeli city of Sderot in July, the normally unflappable senator from Illinois was visibly shaken by what he saw: “The Qassam rockets fired by Hamas deliberately and indiscriminately target civilians,” Obama said. “This terror is intolerable. Israelis should not have to live in terror in their own homes and schools.”

After visiting the hospital bed of two brothers injured by such an attack – one of whom, 8-year-old Osher Tuito, lost his leg as a result – Obama added: “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do anything to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”

President-elect Obama is correct. Israel has the right, indeed the duty, to put a stop to the intolerable threat posed by Hamas – an Iranian-backed Jihadist militia – to its citizens. A just and proportionate Israeli response is one that strives to eliminate Hamas’ ability to carry out attacks against Israel. No more, but also no less.

In August 2005, Israel made a courageous, concrete gesture of peace toward Gazans. At great human and financial cost to itself, Israel removed every last soldier and every single civilian from Gaza, hoping that disengagement would reduce friction, spur economic development and provide a model for peace that could be extended to the West Bank. Israel was not alone in this hope. The United States, United Nations,European Union, World Bank, the Arab League and a thousand nongovernmental organizations were poised to help Gazans build prosperity, freedom and peace. What was the Palestinian response? Violence.

In pursuing its legitimate right to self-defense, Israel must seek to minimize civilian damage, and is appearing to do so. The vast majority of those killed in the Israeli response to Hamas-initiated violence have been Hamas operatives. Israel has chosen its targets carefully, pursuing terrorist training camps and rocket storage facilities, and has used precision missiles to minimize civilian casualties.

Such care for human life stands in stark contrast to Hamas’ own conduct. By using heavily populated Gaza as a launching pad for its attacks, Hamas is guilty of a double war crime. Not only does it target Israeli nursery schools and hospitals, it also uses Palestinian women and children as human shields.

For those of us living in the Bay Area, it is almost impossible to grasp the scale and impact of the assault perpetrated by Hamas. Can we begin to imagine life under a scenario where a jihadist organization has taken hold of Cupertino and is raining rocket attacks on downtown San Jose? Since April 2001, Israelis have been the target of nearly 8,000 rockets and mortar shells. In a grotesque version of hide-and-seek, children living within a 15-mile radius of Gaza have 15 seconds to find shelter once a “code red” alarm is sounded. Sometimes a Qassam slips through Israel’s warning system, depriving civilians of the slimmest opportunity to scramble for safety.

The cumulative effect on those who have had to endure such assaults is devastating, but seldom reported in the American – let alone Arab – press. Unlike Al-Jazeera, Israeli media shy away from inflammatory journalism, and the Israeli public tends to deal with the consequences of Hamas’ attacks with introverted dignity, not photogenic rage. Israel is unfairly condemned for defending itself because the court of public opinion tends to be presented only with evidence of Israel’s retaliation, not with its cause – Hamas’ aggression.

Amichai Magen is the W. Glenn Campbell National Fellow at the Hoover Institution and is a lecturer at Stanford Law School. He wrote this article for the Mercury News.

Amichai Magen: Israel Has a Duty to Protect Its Citizens From Attack

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