Removing A Tumor

Jerrold L. Sobel / American Thinker

Not including this latest spate of violence between the terrorists of Gaza and Israel, over 800 rockets and Mortar attacks have been launched against the Jewish state since January 2012.

Over 30 people sustained injuries in March of this year alone. People living in the southern towns of Beersheva, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Yavne, and Netivot practically spend their entire lives in bomb shelters. Several months ago residents of Beersheva were lucky when a rocket scored a direct hit on an elementary school which fortunately was vacant at the time. To their credit, or as some including this writer might say, to their discredit, Israel has been responding with restraint no other nation with their military resources would.

Trumping the diplomatic blunder of Oslo II signed in September 1995 was the security fiasco of unilateral withdrawal from Gaza made by the Sharon government in August of 2005. As reciprocation for Sharon’s misconceived effort to improve Israel’s security and international status, the Jewish state has suffered seven years of kidnappings, death, and destruction. In fact, less than three years following the dismantlement of Jewish settlements and the exit from Gaza, Operation Cast Lead was launched at great cost in blood and treasure to stem the incessant shelling of her border towns.

During this recent crisis, the Israeli government has been trying numerous diplomatic efforts to halt the violent rocket attacks from Gaza. Appeals to the UN secretary general, as well as appeals to successive presidents of the Security Council, have all come to naught. Instead, Hamas and their affiliates respond by ratcheting up the violence.