With the Jewish State of Israel once again having to defend it's people and it's border, it felt obvious to me that I, as a democrat, should make definitive statement on my position. For that reason, I will deviate slightly from my usual theme to discuss the legitimacy of the Israeli response to the savage attack on the Supernova Music festival and Kibbutz Kvar Aza
Some media outlets are already arguing the Israeli response to Hamas attacks on Sderot and Kfar Aza are disproportionate.. But, let us assume that in response IDF troops had gone into Gaza and entered a Palestinian music festival and butchered 260 young people then taken a further 200 hostage. Let us further assume 40 of those victims were babies and tiny children who had been beheaded and mutilated. Even further, let us assume that these IDF troops had repeatedly raped some of those women.
With this in mind, would the world propose the notion of proportionality? Of course not.
The simple reality is that Israel has always been expected to have a higher ethical (and more forgiving) standard than its enemies - even when those opponents are unashamed terrorists whose founding rhetoric argued:
“The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’” (source: Hamas Charter, 1987)
Transparently the current conflict is having a devastating effect on innocent civilian life in Gaza and there will be hardly a member of the worldwide Jewish Community that will not shed a tear for every innocent Palestinian child affected by this war. Since before the formation of the State of Israel there has been a passion for Jews/ Israelis to live alongside the Arab world in peace and harmony. To that end, Israel has repeatedly reached out and offered to give away land so this may happen. However, leaders of the Palestinian people have always refused any chance of peace.
There comes a time when it becomes imperative that we say "enough", a time when we must say "we will no longer accept the unacceptable".
Today, that time has come and the Palestinian people, alongside Hamas, the PIJ and Hezbollah have a simple choice - they must decide between unconditional surrender of the Palestinian people and the handing over of every terrorist to the Israeli authorities, the unconditional surrender of Hamas and the withdrawal of Hezbollah forces from the Lebanon - Israeli border ... or a continuation of the conflict.
Nothing less is acceptable - Am Israel chai.
