UN Bias (I)
Israel would be crazy to participate in the UN probe into Operation Protective Edge (“Fearing UN Bias, Israel Keeping Distance from Probe Into Gaza Fighting,” front-page news story, Aug. 22).
Far from an objective inquiry, it is clearly designed to make a case against Israel and the IDF’s actions against Hamas. The chairman of the panel appointed by the UN’s secretary general has a history of making statements widely seen as unfriendly to Israel, which should tell us what is contemplated.
This kind of probe is exactly what Hamas was aiming for when it stored weapons in hospitals and mosques and fired rockets from launchers located in densely populated civilian neighborhoods. Although Palestinian civilian deaths are therefore attributable to Hamas, the focus will be on Israel through and through.
Allan Greenbaum
(Via E-Mail)
UN Bias (II)
If anything should convince Israel of the inherent pitfalls in cooperating with any United Nations commission of inquiry it is the Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead (somewhat repudiated by its author well after the damage was done).
The report was a classic example of the intractable bias on the part of the putatively neutral UN. The certitude with which Hamas-promulgated civilian casualty numbers are parroted as factual is scandalous. Hamas knows full well the bloated numbers have a negative impact on Israel’s image.
This blatant duplicity by Hamas, aided and abetted by a complicit UN, EU, and far too many in the U.S., is ample reason for Israel not to comply with the pressure to put itself in the UN “dock.”
With a world reeling from truly horrific and genocidal brutality, the emphasis on the IDF’s indisputably moral warfare is beyond contemptible.
Fay Dicker
Lakewood, NJ
Where’s The Disproportion?
I’ll never understand how Israel can be accused of using “disproportionate” force against Hamas. Israel did not retake Gaza, which it could have done and which would have likely ended the rocket launchings while resulting in an even greater Palestinian death toll.
If the rocket attacks continued even after Israel’s air strikes, how can Israel be accused of acting disproportionately? This is especially relevant since the U.S. and most Western countries said all along that Israel is entitled to defend itself against the rockets.
Irwin Solomon
Jerusalem
Exercises In Futility
There is a saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Regarding the Gaza situation, the saying has to be modified: “Fool me three times and I deserve it.”
One might have expected that after the first two Gaza campaigns ended in failure because they were unfinished, Israel would not repeat the same mistake again. However, Israel did not learn its lesson and again withdrew from Gaza prematurely.
This premature and hurried withdrawal is the crux of the current problem in Gaza. The two stated objectives of the ground offensive were: 1) the destruction of the tunnels and 2) the elimination of the rocket threat to Israel. Neither objective was achieved, unfortunately.
Israel’s initial demand that Hamas give up its weapons is a pipe dream. Hamas will never agree to that. The only ones who can disarm Hamas are the Israelis themselves, by military force. By the same token, the demand that Israel give up the Gaza blockade and build a seaport and airport in Gaza is wishful thinking on the part of Hamas.
Negotiations and cease-fires are exercises in futility. They only give Hamas a chance to regroup and get stronger for the next round, as we have seen before. And next time around, chances are good that Hamas will have guided missiles with more deadly accuracy.
Bezalel Fixler
(Via E-Mail)
Hamas’s Enablers
With the admission by a Hamas spokesman that Hamas was responsible for kidnapping and murdering the three Israeli teenagers in June, we see that the response of Israel in searching for and arresting Hamas operatives in Judea and Samaria was justified. And the ensuing rocket attacks of increasing frequency and range from Gaza left the Israeli government with little option but to respond militarily.