Beit-Hanoun

("rocket science" has become THE "cottage industry" of Gaza)

(Hamas terrorists use UN vehicles to ferry rockets from the factories to the launching sites. There they kneel and pray to their murderous deity that the rockets might kill innocent Israelis. These cowardly brutes never reveal their ugly unshaven faces - always hiding behind ski-masks. The UN must be in bed with them, because you never hear Kofi condemning the use of these vehicles in terrorist operations. But did he ever condemn the use of UN vehicles when our three soldiers were kidnapped and murdered in Lebanon back in the year 2000?)

The price of the Qassams
By Ben Caspit, Maariv, November 11, 2006

Someone must tell the truth. Someone must tell it like it is to the inhabitants of Beit-Hanoun, to the civilians of the Gaza Strip, to the Israeli Arabs, to the entire world. The one simple, punching truth: whoever fires thousands of Qassam rockets into civilian centers for years, whoever stocks up on tons of explosives, weapons and katyusha rockets for months, whoever rains terror and horror over an entire country without any apparent reason, must get it through their heads that they cannot simply hide behind women and children. This kind of behavior carries a price tag.

Every state on this planet has the obligation to protect its citizens. Israel's actions in Gaza are moderate, humane, and moral, much more so than the actions of the US, UK or Russian troops would be in case terrorists were lobbing rockets into Texas, Coventry or Moscow. This is not a theoretical assumption. This is an historical fact, whose consequences are buried in the remains of Grozny, in the ruins of Afghan villages, Iraqi cities and towns, or Dresden during WWII. If we were to examine less enlightened regimes, such as those in the Arab world, the results would be a lot worse.

But guess what, Israel is the only one getting grilled. We are the ones hollered at. Being Jewish is difficult. Living itself is difficult, not to mention self-defense. We have to justify our actions more than anyone else in the world. It shouldn't bother us, though. That is why, although deeply sorry, as any human being should be at the sight of the Beit-Hanoun victims, we must not refrain from telling the truth. And the truth is that as long as Qassams are being launched into Israel, Israel must return fire.

They shoot to kill women and children. We do not. Ever. But when residential neighborhoods become launching pads, it is very difficult to avoid mishaps or technical errors. Which is why, in view of what happened in Beit-Hanoun last night, I would like to reiterate, out loud for the whole world to hear, looking into everyone's eyes, that it's like this: as long as Sderot cannot live in peace, Gaza will not live in peace. You shoot rockets, we fire shells. Shame when one of them goes astray, it's bad, it is a catastrophe, but that's the way it is. Every other option has been tried and failed. When in Rome do as the Romans do: when facing murderous terror perpetrated by a bloodthirsty enemy who wishes to wipe you off the Earth, you have no option but to eliminate him.

Last night, while Col. Yossi Galant, the Southern Command Chief, was being interviewed on Channel 2, a Qassam rocket landed next to the children's quarters in Kibbutz Kfar Gaza (South of Ashkelon). Yesterday morning, Rubhi Rantisi, a Hamas representative, was fuming in an interview on Army Radio: "Do you expect the Arabs to sit idly by?" No, dear Rubhi, we do not expect the Arabs to sit idly by now. We expected the Arabs to sit idly by in the wake of the Gaza pullout. When Israel displaced thousands of its citizens and turned them into refugees, having spent billions and hanging on the brink of civil war in order to perform a complete disengagement from Gaza, behind the international border, and abandoning even the Philadelphi Route. Yes, we were stupid enough to believe that at least now, at least in Gaza, you might sit idly for a while. Instead, we were rewarded with intensified barrages of "improved" Qassams, tons of explosives and Hamas takeover. While another Hamas top man, Ghazi Hamad, was bragging on the radio "Now we have to wipe Israel off the map".

Lovely, good morning, everyone. This was declared in the Hamas charter long before the Beit-Hanoun incident, Mr. Hamid. That is your Bible, that is your belief, that is what you have been trying to do ever since we left Gaza, ever since Ariel Sharon's "pilot", reciprocated by tens of tunnels packed with ammunition and IED (improvised explosive devices). Ghazi Hamad was followed by an Israeli commentator who announced that "Now, following this tragic event, the Israeli-hatred in Gaza is sky-rocketing." Oh, dear!" What exactly was there in Gaza BEFORE this tragic event? Was Gaza overflowing with burning love for Zionists and Jews? These are the people whom we left alone over a year ago, we "got out of their hair", set them free. They could have created a model of rehabilitation, co-existence, peace. If only they had invested one hundredth of their murderous energy into giving the refugee camps a facelift. A tenth of the money they invest in terror could have gone into setting up new residential neighborhoods. They could have shown the whole world – look, Israel is out, has retreated beyond its international border, we have reached a solution and we can live in peace. They could have justifeid our retreat from the West Bank as well.

(rockets found in a private residence in Nablus, West Bank)

Instead, they charged us with rabid terror. They are not attacking the 1967 borders, they want the 1948 borders. They do not challenge the occupation; they do not struggle against the oppression. They want to completely uproot us from here; they want to wipe us off the face of the earth. But guess what, we are not that eager to let that happen.

On the eve of the Beit-Hanoun incident I saw Slieman Al-Shafee (the energetic channel 2 correspondent) interviewing an Islamic Jihad activist who was bragging in front of the cameras that they had developed a new rocket, one that was presently going to land in Sderot's commercial center or next to the children's dorm in Kfar Gaza (if not on top of it actually). I hear someone say – "let's talk to them, let's resume negotiations". But then one grasps the horror, the madness, the hatred, and one asks oneself – what is there to talk about? Ending the occupation in Gaza, perhaps? Shall we offer to retreat and allow them to rebuild their lives, let the spirits chill, separate the demons? But then we remember that we've done that already.

(These are rocket-launching sites targeted by the IDF: Beit-Hanoun, Beit-Lahiya, Sheich-Ziyad, Al-Atatrah, Shuhada Cemetery, Giv'at Oranim, Officers Quarters - this last location was built to provide lodgings for Palestinian security officers).

(Here are rocket attacks recorded in just one week prior to Gaza disengagement: Sha'ar ha-Negev Industrial Park - 1 Qassam, Sderot - 13 Qassams, Netiv ha-Assarah - 1 Qassam, Elei-Sinai - 1 Qassam, 1 mortar, Nissanit - 3 mortars, Gadid - 4 mortars.)

We're out of Gaza. We've retreated. We've negotiated. But it didn't do any good. They are still firing rockets, they are still snatching soldiers in cross-border (international border) attacks. And they are still hiding behind their women and children. But this equation has to be broken. Just as everybody over in Lebanon knows that whoever piles up rockets in their homes might actually get hit by a missile or a shell, so must every Arab mom in Gaza face the reality that she cannot sleep safely at night anywhere in Gaza if the Sderot children cannot sleep safely at night. Whence rockets are launched, shells will fall. Following the disengagement about one thousand Qassam rockets have been fired at us. Which is why we must brace ourselves and carry on. All they have to do, if they want their peace and quiet, is to stop the rockets. Until then there will be no peace and quiet for them, and such mishaps are bound to recur. Yesterday, someone by the name of Rafi Eitan managed to squeeze in among the radio updates pouring in from Beit-Hanoun, and recounted the story of how he captured Eichmann 46 years ago. It appears that Eichmanns don’t die, they reincarnate and need to be recaptured.

I translated this article from Hebrew for the benefit of my non-Hebrew speaking friends who pop in every now and then, because I think it illustrates perfectly what most Israelis feel and think nowadays. However sorry we may be for the loss of life in Beit-Hanoun (which was accidental, although there are serious allegations of foul-play, no wonder the Arabs themselves call it Qana, and therefore I shall address it separately), we must never forget our own victims, who were targeted on purpose:

This is where little Afik Zahavi-Ohaion (below, with his mother, Ruthie) was killed on his way to his kindergarten.

This beautiful 17-year-old girl, Ella (Ayala Abouksiss), sustained fatal head injuries when she shielded her younger brother, Tamir, featured here below.

According to Palestinian (and their blind supporters') logic, all of these heinous crimes are perpetrated (and largely applauded by the international community free-falling for the Palestinian lies and distortion of the English language and international laws- where is the UN condemning violence against defenseless Israeli civilians; where is the UNICEF when Jewish/Israeli children, toddlers, babies, are shamelessly and ruthlessly slain?) under the pretext that they are "war criminals" and "occupiers". Except these children are not targeted because they are war criminals, they are targeted and killed only because they are Jewish and living in Israel.

And the latest Palestinian craze is that the Jews have no legal claim to Jerusalem or to the Land of Israel. I wonder where they (and also their supporters in Europe, America and Canada) learnt their history and why they think the Romans, having taken Jerusalem and ransacked Herod's Temple (in the year 70 AD), first called the province Judea Capta and even minted coins with that inscription. The term Palestina was given 65 years later, as token of ultimate humiliation and insult to the Jews who were constantly challenging Roman authority. It couldn't be that the Arabs were calling themselves Israelites, Jews or anything like that back then, and then suddenly, such as e.g. when Islam was invented in the 7th century AD, decided to call themselves something else, such as Arabs, and Palestinians even later, perhaps in the 1960's. And how the world cheers for them...

It has just struck me that the Palestinians claim to be descendants of those ancient Philistines. Perhaps. Interesting to note, though, that those ancient Philistines were not semitic, whereas Jews and Arabs are very much descendants of Noah's sons...