Vic Alhadeff, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, describes the basic facts behind Israel's retaliatory strikes at its Gaza Strip enemies -- basic facts, by the way, that most of the Western media absolutely refuse to report.Imagine if an offshore terrorist organisation starts firing rockets at towns in northern Australia, aimed at killing and terrorising as many civilians as possible. Australia offers a truce, but the offer is rejected. How long would we expect our Government to wait before using force to defend its citizens? Imagine that Australian forces attack the terrorists. Most of the casualties are operatives, but there are civilian casualties.
Does this mean Australia has used disproportionate force?
For six months a truce was in effect between Israel and Hamas. In truth, the rocket attacks from Gaza aimed at Israeli civilians only declined; they did not cease. Hamas continued to smuggle weapons from Egypt into Gaza. Israel did not respond with force, but restricted movement into and out of Gaza to slow the gunmen and weapons.
It continued to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza and to supply Gazans with more than half of their electricity needs. Incredibly, rocket attacks from Gaza targeted the crossing-points through which humanitarian relief was provided.
The truce ended on December 19, and Israel sought an extension. Between December 24 and 27, Hamas fired 80 rockets a day at Israel and declared it would not renew the truce. The attacks continued unabated. By December 27, Israelis had had enough...
Here's the rest. And the cartoon comes from the pen of Steve Greenberg and was published in the June 26th, 2008 edition of Jewish Journal.
