A Message to Maz Morgan - Thanks and Info

 Hi Maz - I want to thank you for having the courage to leave your name. So many commentors are cowards and refuse to identify themselves. So thank you.

Secondly, I'd like to respond here so that more people will see. Your comment sparked my understanding that good people outside of our area do need more of an explanation. You commented:

What perplexes me is that you write as if Israel has no choice, but must act in the way it is doing. Of course there is a choice: Israel is governed by grown ups after all. The UK government had a choice in relation to the Troubles in Ulster. Innocents were being bombed in mainland UK as well as in Northern Ireland. Many mistakes were made by the UK government but they did not bomb houses and hospitals in Derry, or raze Belfast to the ground.

As I often do with comments, let's break this down...

Comment: What perplexes me is that you write as if Israel has no choice, but must act in the way it is doing.

 

On October 7, 2000-3000 armed terrorists entered Israel. Moments before, the peaceful day of Shabbat combined with the holiday of Simchat Torah was shattered by thousands of rockets meant to distract from the air-gliders bringing terrorist in from Gaza at the same time explosives were used to explode the border allowing pickup trucks, cars and motorcycles of armed terrorist to cross into Israel. 

During that massacre that repeated itself in about 20 different communities, kibbutzim and cities as well as the Nova nature party, 1,200 people were butchered. Women (and men) were violently raped (some before they were murdered, some while being murdered and some even after they were killed). Bodies were mutilated. People were burned alive. I was told last night that from outside of Israel, you can access the videos online. The Israeli government has firmly refused to show the most horrific pictures here in Israel and blocks us access.

So your comment about being perplexed about Israel having no choice actually perplexes me. What would your country do? What have other countries done in response to massacres of this size? The nearest one (and even that pales in comparison when comparing Israel's population to the US) is 9/11. According to the Watson Institute of International & Public Affairs of Brown University, "U.S. post-9/11 wars have forcibly displaced at least 38 million people in and from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines, Libya and Syria".

One promise we Jews made after World War II is that we would never again allow others to butcher us, burn us alive, gas us, beat us, massacre us. The Israeli population experienced much the same on October 7. That's the why of what we are doing. 

Do we have a choice? No, we don't.

Why? Because in January, 2008 we had a war with Gaza that was started that began with hundreds of rockets fired at us from Hamas - 400 in a single day. The US demanded we stop...and we did.

In 2012, four years later, they were back to firing hundreds of rockets at our cities and again, another military operation was launched - Pillar of Defense.

In 2014, two years later, once again Hamas fired a massive barrage against us and again we went in. Operation Protective Edge.

After more skirmishes and attempted infiltrations, in May 2021 and August 2022 - two more operations were launched to shut down the rocket fire.

Less than two years after that last operation, the strange quiet prevailed and we thought maybe...maybe.

But no, they were trying and to some extent succeeded in making us relax. Residents in the south, the ones butchered, raped, and kidnapped, were employing thousands of Gazans, paying them "rich-man's wages" compared to the work in Gaza. Israelis would drive to the border every day, pick up sick children and adults, and drive them to hospitals in Israel for life-saving treatments (for free, of course). We gave them water and electricity (for free, of course). Humanitarian donations flowed freely into Gaza with minor restrictions (no bombs allowed).

And then on October 7 - they attacked. And finally, we responded. Did we have a choice? Sure, we could sit back and watch our people slaughtered and do nothing. Would you? You could watch your daughter raped and do nothing? Your sons forced to fight endless and meaningless battles and not fight back? Could you?

Comment: Of course there is a choice: Israel is governed by grown ups after all. 

As above, no, after tens of thousands of rockets fired at our civilians, after a baby was put in an oven and murdered while his mother was being raped (filmed by the savages), while they used a shovel to hack off the head of a Thai worker (proudly captured on the head cameras warn by Hamas terrorists, while they raped women in front of their husbands, shot people in their eyes as family members watched in horror, broadcast the live murder of a grandmother to her daughter and granddaughter's horror...no there was no choice.

Yes, Israel is not only governed by grown ups, unlike Gaza, it is governed by humane leaders who are doing all they can to prevent, as much as possible, civilian casualties. If you believe Hamas over Israel, there's really nothing I can say to dissuade you.

10:25 Rocket fire from Hezbollah fired at Kiryat Shemona and a dozen other places as I type this post

What is interesting is nowhere in your comment do you condemn Hamas or even recognize what they did. Every day for 136 days (so far with the exception of only 3 days), either Hamas or Hezbollah has fired rocket at  our civilians. No comment, no condemnation. 

When the Nazis marched through Europe's cities and collected and massacred the Jews, much to the silence of the world including, most probably, your country, Jews had no choice. Now we do. 

We have launched no less than 10 operations targeting Hamas in the last 15 years. Always to stop them, never to destroy them. 

Kfir - 9 months old, kidnapped to Gaza.
Still held by Hamas

You say nothing of the thousands of Palestinians killed by HAMAS, shot intentionally, targeted "accidentally" by 2,000 rockets (at least) that Hamas fired into Gaza by mistake - including one that hit a hospital and for which they attempted to blame Israel. Why don't you put the blame where the blame belongs. 

Hamas, who launched this war. Hamas who hides behind its citizens, its women and children. Hamas who took billions of dollars in EU funding to build 450 miles of underground tunnels to protect themselves while civilians have no protection. Hamas that is stealing humanitarian aid from their own people?

Comment: The UK government had a choice in relation to the Troubles in Ulster. Innocents were being bombed in mainland UK as well as in Northern Ireland. Many mistakes were made by the UK government but they did not bomb houses and hospitals in Derry, or raze Belfast to the ground.

Noa, whose mother is dying of cancer.
26 years old

I'll start with the end. Bombing houses and hospitals. Tell me, did the IRA build tunnels and command centers under the hospitals in Derry? Did they turn the hospital into an arsenal with rockets, explosives and rifles hidden there? Tell me, did the IRA or the UK intentionally target civilians, as Hamas does? Did they burn anyone alive? Behead anyone? Did they rape hundreds of woman and leave their naked bodies stretched out? Did they shoot people in their...private areas? From what I remember...they actually called people and warned them when they planted a bomb...and the UK mainly focused on trying to stop the IRA not punish or murder all the people in Northern Ireland. 

54% of the people who died in the Ireland-UK conflict were civilians. The current conflict is running about the same in Gaza. In Israel, about 75% were civilians and again, you wrote nothing of that. You don't question how many of the casualties in Gaza were armed combatants. Hamas, who runs the "Health Ministry" in Gaza is throwing out one number with no corroboration AND no information as to how many were armed combatants.

Hamas regularly uses mosques, homes, schools and hospitals as arsenals and bases for their military activity. Israel is documenting all of this and proving it to be true. Our hostages were held in hospitals. According to captured Gazans, bodies of at least 10 murdered Israeli hostages are currently in the Nasser hospital.

Like the IRA, Hamas seems to enjoy targeting civilians. What is ironic is that the fight between Ireland and the UK was called "The Troubles" and yes, was quite civilized on comparison to the way Hamas fights and so, in response I would say that when you fight a relatively civilized battle which seeks to disrupt rather than massacre, you have the luxury of calling it Trouble.

What we had on October 7 was not "trouble" - it was a barbaric massacre of huge proportions against a largely civilian population, including many elderly and many children.

You'll note, I hope, the together, the Allies, led by the US and Britain did in fact "raze" Dresden to the ground. And, without any evidence that the Nazis were using hospitals as bases, they destroyed 19 hospitals. Do you condemn this response to the barbarity of the Nazi regime?

Today, Israel is fighting the Nazis of Gaza. Nothing less. Their victims were targeted because they were Jews. They went door to door, shot, beat, raped, and burned people alive. So no, there is no other choice but to destroy Hamas.