Operation Cast Lead: Not Just A Defensive War

That is the case made by James Kirchick at Contentions:

Last week, Israel reported that it believes Hamas acquired dozens of Iranian Fajr-3 missiles, and that, over time, Hamas would have obtained rockets able to strike the Israel nuclear installation at Dimona, some 20 miles east of Beersheba. At some point, given the existence of a massive tunnel smuggling network, Hamas would have weapons capable of hitting Tel Aviv.

Though it has greatly reduced rocket fire, Operation Cast Lead has not eliminated it. There is no doubt, however, that left unmolested, Hamas would soon be firing rockets at densely populated areas, thus disturbing normal life for an ever greater number of Israelis and inflicting many more casualties than the number currently deemed acceptable by its critics. Given the current unpopularity of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — both of which were undertaken not only as responses to illegal and dangerous behavior by the regimes then in power, but also to preempt even graver threats down the line — it’s understandable that Israel and its defenders would opt for the relatively easier case of self-defense as opposed to preemption. But the latter is justified all the same.

All the more so as Hamas brazenly fires more and more rockets, deeper and deeper into Israel--and Meryl Yourish's study of the Hamas penchant for deliberately aiming Grad rockets at schools in Israel leaves little to the imagination of what might have been.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza and Hamas and Operation Cast Lead.