The Tundra Tabloids’ co-contributor, Al Avai, recently mentioned to me about the need to “bring home to us Finns” the reality of the situation that Israeli citizens -living in S’derot and Ashkelon- are having to deal with. The distance of the rocket launchers in Gaza to S’derot is about 5.6 km. This is the same as the distance from Lauttasaari to Katajanokka, where the Finnish Foreign Ministry resides. What would be the Finnish reaction if people were launching rockets from Lauttasaari aimed at the Finnish MFA? Last year, the Gates of Vienna posted an email from an Israeli doctor who wrote:
I am writing to you from Jerusalem, Israel. I have a suggestion how to impress
upon the readers of your blogs the essence of the complete insanity of the
Israeli defense policy. Compare the distances from one point to another in two
different reference systems. In other words: take a map showing the distance from, for example, Gaza City or any population center in Gaza, to the City of Sderot. Then take a map of where you live, with identical distances.
I determined that the doctor’s reasons and suggestions to compare the distances compelling enough, so I did the same for Finland in a post back in May of 2007. Hopefully the Finns that visited the Tundra Tabloids back then, can somehow better imagine what it’s like for the citizens of Israel –who live in Sderot and Ashkelon– to live under the constant threat of being hit by Kassam rockets. For those of you who haven’t viewed the original post, here is a re-post of it from 2007, including some additional information. First, here is a map showing Gaza and the range of the various rockets that Palestinian terrorists are firing at Israeli public centers of Sderot and Ashkelon.
The distance that these Kassams can travel is between 3 to 9 kilometers, which covers the entire areas of both cities. These rockets have little or no military use, their only purpose is to cause panic and mayhem and murder if someone happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is clearly a war crime and the Finnish media has thus far neglected to report it as such.
Now take a look at the city of Helsinki: If there were Kassems being launched from the island of Lauttasaari, the lower grade al-Kassam 1 that can only travel 3 KMS would reach the Heslinki train station.
The whole city of Helsinki however, would fall under the deadly umbrella of the Kassam 2, which can travel the distance of 9 KMS . I have circled key areas of importance to bring home the “impact” of such a scenario.
The Helsinki Central Train Station, the famous Kiasma Museum, the Finnish House of Parliament and the Finlandia Talo would all be potential targets, as well as the Olympic Stadium and the Hartwell Arena. These rockets are having a devastating effect on the Israeli population and constitute a war crime, what would the response of the Finnish government be if their civilian centers were under a constant barrage of fire? The attack on Sderot is an export of internal conflict in the Palestinian society.
- Innocent citizens of Sderot are being attacked by Hammas who is part of
the PA. - The PA is responsible.
- The Israeli government has shown restraint in the last 2 months.
According to Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni (from May of last year):
“Close to 30 Qassam rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel in the past 24 hours, two of which hit a school and a synagogue in the city of Sderot. More than 90 Qassam rockets were launched into Israel since Tuesday. Close to 400 rockets were launched since the November ceasefire.
It is important to understand that the Israeli government has shown restraint in the last two months, but the last four days, in which Israeli civilians are being attacked on a daily basis with missiles from the Gaza strip a place that Israel left in order to give the Palestinians the possibility to create a normal life and not to attack.”
What would any other government do under similar circumstances? I doubt seriously that they would tolerate it, instead, they would take measures against the Kassam fire in order to ensure the safety of their citizens.
For the most part, the whole Kassam scenario has been kept off the Finnish media’s radar screens, and only when Israel has reacted do they begin to take notice. The situation was the very same back in May of 2007, with the only difference now being, the extended range of the Plaestinians’ fire power with the GRAD Katusha (made in Iran) missile. Since the breaching of the Gaza-Egyptian border, the area has been flooded with weapons, all the while the Hamas has been feigning desperate poverty to the international community. *L* KGS
