Stamping Out Terrorism

"Al-Qassem Brigades are now firing missiles against the enemy in occupied Jerusalem in response to its crimes and aggression against the holy city and the harassment of our people in Sheikh Jarrakh and the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

Abu Obeidah, spokesman, Hamas

"We are in the midst of a campaign."

"Since yesterday [Monday] afternoon, the Israel Defence Forces has carried out hundreds of strikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza."

"We've hit commanders and many high-quality targets."

"This is just the beginning. We'll hit them like they've never dreamed possible."

"Nothing can justify an Arab mob assaulting Jews, and nothing can justify a Jewish mob assaulting Arabs [in Israeli cities]."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

"We must use force to make sure this will stop, it's impossible to continue our lives like this."

Rachel Sharbit, Ashdod resident

 

"We must not be dragged into provocations and inflicting harm on people or property." 

"The Torah of Israel grants no license for taking the law into one's hands and acting violently."

Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system - seen here over Ashkelon - aims to protect towns and cities from rockets   Reuters

Jerusalem and southern Israel have been targeted by hundreds of rockets over the border with Gaza, courtesy of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, intent on their goal of destabilizing Israel on their way to eliminating it entirely from the Middle East. Neither has any moral qualms over sending explosive into civilian areas with the risk of maiming and killing innocent people for the very fact that as far as they're concerned there are no innocent Jews, all are guilty of doing harm to Palestinian Arabs, despite that Israel's population is inclusive of 20 percent Arab citizens.

All of whom have full voting rights and send parliamentary members representing their interests to the Knesset. Their security is assured, they can achieve personal ambitions to practise any profession they wish in the country. But they are expected, as citizens of Israel to obey its laws and to be peaceful, to go about their business and allow others the same courtesy. These are civilizational norms that are not necessarily reciprocated. Palestinian and Israeli Arabs refuse to permit Jewish citizens of a Jewish country to pray at the most sacred site in Judaism, among other inequities.

 

A large fire is seen near the scene of a Gaza rocket attack on an Israeli energy pipeline near Ashkelon   Reuters

 

Oil and water don't mix, and thus it is with Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel; simmering tensions, distrust and rage at perceived victimization persist. An Arab-Israeli sits on Israel's high court, there are Arab-Israeli diplomats, Arab-Israeli medical professionals work and are respected for their work at Israeli hospitals, Arab-Israeli MKs have their voice in the Knesset, but Friday mosque prayers come replete with incitements to violence against Jews.

Any perceived 'incident' that is held to be indicative of minimizing Arab-Israeli 'rights' and 'entitlements' come replete with violent protests. And such it was that touched off the latest round of violent riots with Arab-Israeli youth lobbing rocks and incendiary devices at police attempting to maintain public order. These pious youths defending Arab rights and Islamic principles bring rocks into their holy sanctuaries weaponizing them for use against Israeli police, against the presence of any Jews on the Temple Mount.

 

Israeli firefighters, security and rescue forces stand next to a burning bus and car that were hit by a rocket fired from Gaza   Reuters

 

Hamas and Fatah continue their vicious enmity, each vying for the trust of Palestinians, and each incite their followers to violence. Hamas from time to time tests the patience of Israel and the IDF by occasional rockets across the border into Israel, and by sending incendiary balloons over to explode in Israel's forests and agricultural fields where destructive fires then erupt creating emergency situations. The typical agenda is to have a brief and deadly exchange of rockets and aerial bombs, then to sue for peace.

Hamas depends on Egypt and Qatar to prevail upon Israel to take the blows against its border communities and to go no further into Gaza to disrupt the reign of Hamas and the predations of Islamic Jihad. This is the practise of hudna, where at an opportune time, when weapons supplies have been replenished, the two terrorist groups once again begin sending 

rockets into Israel and towns like Sderot and Ashkelon sound their alarms for residents to rush into bomb shelters.

This time it's not just a dozen rockets but over a thousand that in a period of several days have tried Israel's patience and the efficacy of its Iron Dome protective anti-rocket system. This time Israel will not, should not, must not withdraw its intention to exact a heavy price on the two terrorist groups for endangering Israeli lives and murdering innocent civilians. Hamas has succeeded itself in killing innocent Gazan civilians in misfired rockets that land in Gaza.

 

Rockets are launched by Palestinian militants into Israel, in Gaza May 12, 2021. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

 

And when the Israeli Defence Forces target a building or complex in Gaza, it sends a warning knock-on bomb to alert anyone within to evacuate before the follow-on explosives are dropped to destroy the designated building as retaliation for the antitank missiles lobbed into Israel destroying homes and vehicles and lives. Hamas demands that Israel 'vacate' the Al-Aqsa mosque, that Israel stop 'harassing' violently-rioting Arabs.

It is now long past time for Israel to stop having to use air raid sirens to warn its people of oncoming missiles. Israeli police and its military must be given the signal that disruptive violence will not be tolerated, no special dispensation allowed because of fear of international censure, and the terrorist groups that have gripped Israel in a vice of suspended apprehension must no longer have the platform to operate using Gaza's Palestinian civilian population as shields.

Smoke rises from a tower after it was hit by Israeli air strikes amid a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence, in Gaza City May 12   Reuters