Green Energy
Shamelessly pinched from Atlas Shrugs
Did Israel Use "Disproportionate Force" in Gaza?
Israeli Population Centers Under Rocket Attack
There are good reasons why initial criticism of Israel has been muted. After all, Israeli population centers in southern Israel have been the target of over 4,000 rockets, as well as thousands of mortar shells, fired by Hamas and other organizations since 2001.1 The majority of those attacks were launched after Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. Indeed, rocket attacks increased by 500 percent (from 179 to 946) from 2005 to 2006.
Moreover, lately Hamas has been extending the range of its striking capability even further with new rockets supplied by Iran. Hamas used a 20.4-kilometer-range Grad/Katyusha for the first time on March 28, 2006, bringing the Israeli city of Ashkelon into range of its rockets for the first time. That change increased the number of Israelis under threat from 200,000 to half a million.2 Moreover, on December 21, 2008, Yuval Diskin, Head of the Israel Security Agency, informed the Israeli government that Hamas had acquired rockets that could reach Ashdod, Kiryat Gat, and even the outskirts of Beersheba.3 The first Grad/Katyusha strike on Ashdod, in fact, took place on December 28. There had been no formal cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, but only an informal six-month tahadiya (lull), during which 215 rockets were launched at Israel.4 On December 21, Hamas unilaterally announced that the tahadiya had ended.
Read it all
- Rockets Over Ashkelon Again
The Hamas has resumed their attacks: A rocket fired at Israel from Gaza on Saturday night triggered air raid sirens in the Ashkelon and Hof Ashkelon regions. The projectile apparently exploded in an open area, and security forces said they had begun to...
-
Gaza-Israel violence rages on as 4 militants killed GAZA (Reuters) - Israel killed four Palestinian militants and wounded half a dozen others as it pursued air raids in Gaza for a third day on Saturday, responding to increased rocket fire out of the territory,...
-
Newsmax: Israel Preparing for 'Large-scale War' — Cable Sunday, 02 Jan 2011 Israel's army chief told a U.S. Congress delegation in late 2009 he was preparing for a large war in the Middle East, probably against Hamas or Hezbollah, leaked...
- Gaza Now In 'full-blown' Humanitarian Crisis
Note the non-existant bias throughout this article. Gaza in full blown humanitarian crisis. Breaks my heart. Where is the media while Hamas rained rockets on Sderot, Ashkelon, Ashdod? On kindergarden kids this past weekend? Crush the roaches, Israel,...
- In Response To Unending Palestinian Terrorist Attacks, Israel Orders Killing Of Hamas Politicians
(The Sunday Times) In a desperate attempt to stop the barrage of rockets fired by Hamas at Israeli villages, Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, has ordered his security chiefs to target the Islamic movement’s political leadership. According to...
Green Energy
Dore Gold on Disproportionate Response
Shamelessly pinched from Atlas Shrugs
Did Israel Use "Disproportionate Force" in Gaza?
Dore Gold
Israeli population centers in southern Israel have been the target of over
4,000 rockets, as well as thousands of mortar shells, fired by Hamas
and other organizations since 2001. Rocket attacks increased by 500 percent
after Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. During an
informal six-month lull, some 215 rockets were launched at Israel.
The charge that Israel uses disproportionate force keeps resurfacing
whenever it has to defend its citizens from non-state terrorist organizations
and the rocket attacks they perpetrate. From a purely legal perspective,
Israel's current military actions in Gaza are on solid ground. According to
international law, Israel is not required to calibrate its use of force
precisely according to the size and range of the weaponry used against it.
Ibrahim Barzak and Amy Teibel wrote for the Associated Press on December 28
that most of the 230 Palestinians who were reportedly killed were "security
forces," and Palestinian officials said "at least 15 civilians were among the
dead." The numbers reported indicate that there was no clear intent to inflict
disproportionate collateral civilian casualties. What is critical from the
standpoint of international law is that if the attempt has been made "to
minimize civilian damage, then even a strike that causes large amounts of damage
- but is directed at a target with very large military value - would be lawful."
Luis Moreno-Orampo, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal
Court, explained that international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court "permit belligerents to carry out proportionate
attacks against military objectives, even when it is known that some civilian
deaths or injuries will occur." The attack becomes a war crime when it is
directed against civilians (which is precisely what Hamas does).
After 9/11, when the Western alliance united to collectively topple the
Taliban regime in Afghanistan, no one compared Afghan casualties in 2001 to the
actual numbers that died from al-Qaeda's attack. There clearly is no
international expectation that military losses in war should be on a one-to-one
basis. To expect Israel to hold back in its use of decisive force against
legitimate military targets in Gaza is to condemn it to a long war of attrition
with Hamas.
Israel is currently benefiting from a limited degree
of understanding in international diplomatic and media circles for launching a
major military operation against Hamas on December 27. Yet there are significant
international voices that are prepared to argue that Israel is using
disproportionate force in its struggle against Hamas.
Israeli Population Centers Under Rocket Attack
There are good reasons why initial criticism of Israel has been muted. After all, Israeli population centers in southern Israel have been the target of over 4,000 rockets, as well as thousands of mortar shells, fired by Hamas and other organizations since 2001.1 The majority of those attacks were launched after Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. Indeed, rocket attacks increased by 500 percent (from 179 to 946) from 2005 to 2006.
Moreover, lately Hamas has been extending the range of its striking capability even further with new rockets supplied by Iran. Hamas used a 20.4-kilometer-range Grad/Katyusha for the first time on March 28, 2006, bringing the Israeli city of Ashkelon into range of its rockets for the first time. That change increased the number of Israelis under threat from 200,000 to half a million.2 Moreover, on December 21, 2008, Yuval Diskin, Head of the Israel Security Agency, informed the Israeli government that Hamas had acquired rockets that could reach Ashdod, Kiryat Gat, and even the outskirts of Beersheba.3 The first Grad/Katyusha strike on Ashdod, in fact, took place on December 28. There had been no formal cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, but only an informal six-month tahadiya (lull), during which 215 rockets were launched at Israel.4 On December 21, Hamas unilaterally announced that the tahadiya had ended.
Read it all
- Rockets Over Ashkelon Again
The Hamas has resumed their attacks: A rocket fired at Israel from Gaza on Saturday night triggered air raid sirens in the Ashkelon and Hof Ashkelon regions. The projectile apparently exploded in an open area, and security forces said they had begun to...
-
Gaza-Israel violence rages on as 4 militants killed GAZA (Reuters) - Israel killed four Palestinian militants and wounded half a dozen others as it pursued air raids in Gaza for a third day on Saturday, responding to increased rocket fire out of the territory,...
-
Newsmax: Israel Preparing for 'Large-scale War' — Cable Sunday, 02 Jan 2011 Israel's army chief told a U.S. Congress delegation in late 2009 he was preparing for a large war in the Middle East, probably against Hamas or Hezbollah, leaked...
- Gaza Now In 'full-blown' Humanitarian Crisis
Note the non-existant bias throughout this article. Gaza in full blown humanitarian crisis. Breaks my heart. Where is the media while Hamas rained rockets on Sderot, Ashkelon, Ashdod? On kindergarden kids this past weekend? Crush the roaches, Israel,...
- In Response To Unending Palestinian Terrorist Attacks, Israel Orders Killing Of Hamas Politicians
(The Sunday Times) In a desperate attempt to stop the barrage of rockets fired by Hamas at Israeli villages, Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, has ordered his security chiefs to target the Islamic movement’s political leadership. According to...