Today’s edition of the Helsingin Sanomat (The New York Times of Finland and subscription only) contains a rather surprisingly accurate editorial on the current situation in Gaza and in Israel.
The HS writes:
“Nobody can deny Israel’s right to respond even militarily, when its area is being shelled day after day with rockets. Israel’s air strikes at the most can be questioned as to whether they achieve the desired results. Qassam rocket factories and launch sites are difficult to find, and neither has Israel’s responses shown, up until now, been able to slow the sporadic launchings.”
Correct! Nobody can either challenge or deny Israel’s right to defend itself from a clear act of war. I must ask though, why the shelling of Sderot (which claimed the life of an Israeli women yesterday) and Ashkelon over the past two years from Gaza, has gone virtually unmentioned in the Finnish mass media until now?
The HS is also correct in stating that the Qassam rocket factories and launching sites are indeed hard to find, since the factories are well hidden within crowded civilian centers, with the Qassams being launched from these same civilian centers directly into Israeli civilian centers, which constitutes a war crime. (no mention of war crime in the editorial).
HS: “The Qassam is an inaccurate and militarily useless weapon, with a sole purpose of terrorizing a civilian population. In Gaza there is a lot of blind hate directed at Israel, which doesn’t choose methods nor victims. The radical group Hamas which sits in the Palestinian government is still able to stop the rocket fire or at least drastically reduce it, if it wants to. The thinking of the group is difficult to follow, as it allows or even directs Israel’s torment with mindless terror.”
Correct again! Like the Hezbollah’s arsenal in southern Lebanon, the Palestinians’ Qassam rockets have no exact aim, but the terrorists do know the general direction of Israeli cities, and fire them in hope of murdering anyone who happens to be in the vicinity of where they hit. A war crime.
At least the HS’s editorial recognizes that Hamas does in fact have the ability to stop these war crimes if it wanted to. They even label it as “mindless terror”, KUDOS. That is the exact nature of the beast, mindless terror, which cares very little or not at all for the safety of its own people (using its own as human shields while they launch deadly rockets) nor the killing of Israeli civilians. A war crime.
HS: “In the end, the unilateral pullout from Gaza in the summer of 2005 has not solved anything for Israel. The area is, if at all possible, even more miserable and isolated (cut off). Fattah’s and Hamas’ struggle for power hinders any governmental development. With strikes happening over the border, Israel has to every time decide, whether to respond with long range artillery or deploy its ground forces back into Gaza. Whatever the decision, success is only short lived.”
Correct again! It hasn’t solved anything for Israel, due to the long term goals of Hamas, the other Palestinian terror groups and their like minded supporters, who do not accept a permanent two state solution. As long as this detrimental mentality represents the majority view of the Palestinians, Palestinian war crimes will continue, and any successes against them will be “short lived”. *L* KGS
Note: Just think what would be happening if the Palestinians did in fact get their state without giving up on their dream of a greater Palestine. Qassam rockets would be hitting Telaviv, Haifa and Jerusalem, with the world pressuring Israel to refrain from responding, and immoral comdenation of the Jewish state when it responds anyway.
As long as Europe refuses to pressure the Palestinians to reform and hold them accountable for their misdeeds, the Arabs can always count on them to provide enough political cover, while the lob rockets at Israel and commit other acts of terrorist violence. The EU’s money will always be there for the using.
