What Constitutes an Act of War?

In a normal land, if a country were to dare to shoot a rocket at another, that would be considered an act of war. Once might be excused away, perhaps two, but after three attacks inside a few weeks, there would likely be a full scale offensive against the neighboring land to stop the aggression. After all, a country has to protect its citizens. If this country attacked more than a few times, there would be a massive outcry throughout the land, across political borders, and perhaps international repercussions as well…unless, that land being hit was Israel.

In December, my son went to war to stop our southern residents from being bombarded with daily rocket attacks. In January, as Barack Hussein Obama swept into office, the Israeli government crumbled under pressure and pulled out, hoping the message it had delivered was strong enough to make Hamas reconsider further attacks. My son and his fellow soldiers knew that more rockets would come; that Hamas had not really received the message. That was in January.

During the month of February, there were 88 rocket and mortar launchings against Israel – consider that number. Almost three times a day, on average, people had to go running for cover.

In March, there were 73 rocket launchings. I don’t remember any UN condemnation – maybe I missed it. I surely don’t remember any international outcry. On the contrary, I heard commitment after commitment by nations wishing to rebuild Gaza, despite the ongoing attacks that had caused the war in the first place. There were even cases when Israel’s own media did not want to report the attacks, playing down the impact, failing to confirm the landing.

In April there were 12 attempts to attack IDF troops, including explosive devices detonated against IDF troops and two incidents of small arms fire towards soldiers. There were 57 attacks in Judea and Samaria – most of these incidents were Molotov cocktail attacks against Israeli vehicles. Finally, this past month, in April, “only” 8 rocket launchings were recorded. Isn’t that an amazing concept – we are “content” that we were only attacked eight times? It’s in all the news sites – only 8. This seems to mark some sort of success in the eyes of the government, the media, and perhaps even among the people who “only” had to run 8 times instead of 80.

Today, five mortars were fired at Israel.

One final note – in 2008, 13,7000 permits were extended to Palestinians in Gaza to enter Israel for medical treatment. Today, Israel’s intelligence agencies warned that there has been a sharp increase in forgeries of these medical permits, leading to concern that Palestinian terrorists may take advantage of Israel’s policy of offering humanitarian aid in order to sneak in and attack.

This news item appeared in several Israeli sites, unconnected to the number of rocket attacks. While there was concern about this item, there seemed to be a tone of relief in relation to the attacks. I can understand being relieved that we were “only” hit eight times in March, but…since when is that an acceptable concept. Would the US accept someone shooting eight rockets at New York? Would England accept “only” eight rockets (never mind what either of those countries would do if someone shot sixty or seventy or eighty in a one month period.

Yesterday, a top military official warned that he thinks there will be another Gaza war within a year. Was it not the silence of the world during the last 10 years and 10,000 missile attacks that led to this last Gaza War? Wasn’t Israel forced to act, and act alone, to stop Hamas because no one else dared or cared?

President Obama is pushing hard for peace in the Middle East. Perhaps it might be best if he would deliver one simple message to the Arabs – one we have been trying to deliver for 61 years. There will be compromises…when there will be peace; and there will be peace…when you stop the violence.

A single rocket attack, a single child terrorized into running for his life, a single mother panicked as she shelters her children, is too much to permit. What constitutes an act of war? Israel can easily point its finger at Hamas eight times during April, 73 times during March, 88 times during February, and 5 times for today.

1 Comment

  1. I’ve been kind of holed up at work and very out of touch with the world as of late. But I recall hearing a snipit that the Israeli Primeminister met with Obama and the meeting went longer than expected. I don’t know if anything has been reported on what was discussed. It seems that many of the stances Obama had while campaigning, he has changed his mind once briefed on them. Our press reported on how shocked Obama and his advisors were when they got the Top Secret brief on everything going on in the middle east.

    Joel Rosenberg posted something on his blog about the choice of Israel’s ambassador. I guess the ambassador is an expert on Israeli history regarding taking pre-emptive action for survival. So I suppose a good choice if you have to send someone over to the White House to explain why a particular action is being taken.

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