Responding to the Operation in Gaza - Part 2: Answers for Those Who Question Israel's Actions...

- - - for analysis of the political and military situation, press here.

As Israel enters her third day of Operation "Cast Lead" against the Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the following points, written by colleague Rabbi Mickey Boyden (who spoke at Sinai about five years ago) who serves a reform congregation in Hod HaSharon, north of Tel Aviv. If you are fielding questions about Israel's role in the current unrest, the following points are important to share:

1. Israel never wanted this war. Even Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority and no friend of Israel, said that Operation Cast Lead would never have started if Hamas had been prepared to extend the ceasefire.

2. I wonder how many people know that, on the day prior to the commencement of the Operation, we admitted a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment in our country. He had been severely wounded by a stray Hamas rocket fired on Israel.

3. A homicide bomber exploded himself today in Mosul, Iraq. In doing so, he killed and wounded Sunni Muslims, who were holding a demonstration against Israel's operation in the Gaza Strip. The people we are dealing with are driven by a fanaticism that shows no respect for any of the human values we profess. Who else would callously and sadistically hold Gilead Shalit
prisoner for over 900 days without granting access to the Red Cross or providing his family with any opportunity to communicate with him? (Incidentally, the same is not true for Palestinians being held in Israeli
jails.)

4. Egypt's opposition to Operation Cast Lead has been fairly muted. After all, it is Hamas and similar Muslim fundamentalist groups that threaten the stability of President Mubarak's secular government.

5. For those who criticize Israel's action, I have just one question: Where was your voice during the months and years that thousands of Kassam rockets and mortar shells rained down on Sederot and our kibbutzim and towns close to the Gaza Strip?

6. To those who argue that Israel's action is "disproportionate", I would ask this: How else do you stop an Iranian backed terrorist force operating out of civilian areas, who do not respect the Geneva Convention and who deny Israel's right to exist as a sovereign Jewish state?

7. When people criticize Israel for closing the border crossings into the Gaza Strip, they have a short memory. Israel withdrew her forces from the Gaza Strip and evacuated Jewish civilian settlements in the area at great personal and economic cost. Instead of moving in peacefully, Hamas used the areas that we had evacuated to launch rocket attacks on undefended civilian
targets in Israel. The closing of border crossings was used in a vain attempt to persuade the Palestinians that it was not in their interests to continuing firing rockets against Israel. Prior to such attacks, the crossing were always open. Even this very day, in the middle of the current Operation, Israel allowed three aircraft from Qatar bearing humanitarian aid to land at El Arish airport in the Gaza Strip.

8. You will notice that the pictures you are seeing of the Palestinian dead and wounded to date have all been of men. No women or children. If there had been women and children, the Palestinians would have been quick to use such material for propaganda purposes. Although innocent people will inevitably be killed, the identity of those killed and wounded testifies to the skill of the Israeli Air Force in pinpointing its attacks and limiting them to Hamas targets and infrastructure.

How are things in Israel? As ever, life carries on as normal. Jerusalem today was full of families celebrating Chanukah and enjoying the Winter sun. The inhabitants of Sederot finally can breathe a sigh of relief in knowing that the IDF is attacking those who have made their lives miserable over the past few years. No one mentions the children who grow up in fear, those who
have returned to wetting their beds and the tens of thousands of innocent human beings who have been living their lives knowing that they had just 15 seconds to get to a bomb shelter once hearing the Red Alert air raid warning. No one likes war, but with an implacable enemy like the Hamas, the current situation could not be allowed to continue.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Micky Boyden - Hod HaSharon, Israel 8/29/08