Civilian victims: who's to blame?In August 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza and the North of the West Bank. It did so to improve its citizen's security and to put the peace process with the Palestinians back on track.
When some 1700 Israeli families were forced to leave 25 lively communities built during the last 30 years, Israel expected the Palestinians to start building their own lives in a territory devoid of any Jewish presence. Instead, Palestinian terrorists have caused an escalation of the conflict, firing over 500 Kassam rockets on Israeli towns. In all, more than 1000 rockets have been fired on Israeli civilian population since September 2001, and the attacks continue.
When Palestinians attack Israelis, they force Israel to reply. Invariably, the media use a double standard: Palestinian violence is seen with indulgence and tolerance, while Israel is blamed for its "brutal repression". This absence of a common ground is neither moral nor logical.
When Palestinians deliberately aim at Israeli civilians, they are responsible for Israeli deaths, but they are also morally responsible for all the Palestinian casualties that ensue. One does not provoke a war without suffering the consequences.
Likewise, when Palestinian terrorists cynically place their rocket-throwers, their arms laboratories and their arms stockpiles in the heart of their own civilian population, they use that population as a human shield against Israeli retaliation and they deliberately put it in danger. Lately, rocket-throwers have been setting up more and more in densely populated zones.
There is, however, a profound difference between Israel and the terrorists. Israel defends and protects its civilians against Palestinians who specifically aim at civilians (70% of Israelis killed are civilians, while only 17% of Palestinians killed are civilians).
Terrorism is a tragic folly. It is counter-productive and prolongs the conflict. If Palestinian leaders had acted differently, Gaza's youth today would have a future, rather than be recruited to commit suicide and become "martyrs"
Israel has always deplored the death of innocent Palestinians. As tragic as these accidental deaths are, in the end, it is the Palestinian terrorists who bear the responsibility.
Source: Information newsletter published by Israel's embassy in France, June 23, 2006.
Hamas setting up explosives among children Back
