The “disproportionality” fetishists also never get around to noting that Israel has conducted less than a thousand air strikes in response to over 7,000 Hamas rocket attacks since 2005.UPDATE: And here is a second example of disproportion, from Michael Totten:
Hamas’s war aim is entirely out of proportion to Israel’s. Israel wants to halt the incoming rocket fire, while Hamas seeks the destruction or evacuation of Israel.Read Totten's entire post, which examines the sources on the issue of what "Disproportionate Force" really means.
UPDATE II: Jonah Goldberg takes a broader look at disproportionate response:
Just a random question: how come the people complaining about disproportionate responses never protest when Israel trades a couple hundred Palestianian prisoners for the dead bodies of one or two Israeli soldiers?Crossposted on Soccer Dad
Technorati Tag: Israel and Hamas and Gaza and Operation Cast Lead and Disproportionate Force.
4 comments:
The purpose of Hamas is to remove the Jews from Israel through armed conflict. They are attacking the Israelis with rockets in order to kill them. A proportional response would be for the Israelis to attack the Gazans with weapons to kill them. The Israelis are responding with less than a proportional attack because they are attacking only the infrastructure that is used to support the attack against them.
Good point, but one overshadowed by the inevitable death of civilians that Hamas--and the media--emphasize.
When you send missiles and mortars from civilian areas civilian casualties will be encountered. Of course when you aim rockets at civilian population centers casualties will be encountered. You have to recognize the whining for what it is and ignore it. After all the fighting would stop if Hamas stopped sending missiles. But then the would lose.
I think you are right up to a point. When the world joins in the whining and hand wringing, the pressure increases exponentially and the demands for a truce increase.
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