schools in the line of fire; Iran's Hamas War
I think that the event at the UNRWA school yesterday was so horrific and tragic that it deserves some words. I'd like to deconstruct the event from my own perspective and would really appreciate any dialogue on the issue with anyone who has another perspective.
Before anything, I also think that it's very important to note the suffering of civilians. Civilians in the Gaza strip who are helpless in their little swath of hell called home. Civilians in southern Israel that have lived with Hamas rockets for seven years and continue to see war threaten their children.
Yesterday, Hamas militants launched rockets from the yard of a UNRWA school toward civilian population centers in southern Israel. The launches were followed immediately by an Israeli army strike and because this fighting is happening from within the centers of population in Gaza, the building collapsed and dozens of innocent civilians who were trying to flee this hell were killed. I think this incident is very representative of the general tragedy that's happening here.
Rather than speak broadly, I want to focus on the damage that's done to schools and kindergartens. For the last seven years, children in schools in the cities, towns, and villages of Southern Israel have been bombarded with missiles. In the last ten days a missile struck a kindergarten and would have killed all of the children in it, but they weren't at the kindergarten, they were in bomb shelters.
A few days later a missile struck an elementary school classroom in the morning hours where 45 students would have been studying, but they weren't, they were in bomb shelters.
The Israeli government as policy has instructed everyone in the vicinity of these rockets to stay inside, the "lucky" ones have bomb shelters to hide in, and the unlucky ones are told to try and avoid windows and hope for the best.
The mirror image of that is the Iranian-backed Hamas leadership which instructed (until they stopped talking to them completely) the Palestinian residents of Gaza to remain in the firing zones because that provides protection for the militants. I don't say this lightly and I don't think this can be overlooked. Hamas is using the Palestinian population as a weapon in this war, as a vehicle through which they can continue to target other civilians. There is a double tragedy and double crime there.
There is no doubt in my mind that when the IDF strikes a target it is aiming for the militant capacity to fire rockets into Israeli population centers and the terrorist infrastructure that supports it. There is also no doubt in my mind that when Hamas fires a Chinese-made Grad rocket with hundreds of metal pellets designed to rip through the flesh of whoever is in the vicinity of the missile, their intent is to kill as many innocent civilians as possible.
Further, that they fire from within places where women and children are concentrated because it is in their interest. They fire from schoolyards.
The fact that more people in Israel haven't died is not because of lack of motive, means, or malevolence, it is because people are in bomb shelters, people have fled the area, people have been dealing with these missiles for over seven years.
The fact that more people in Gaza haven't died is because Israel is trying to conserve civlians lives, though it's almost impossible considering the tactics used by Hamas and obviously didn't help the people in the UNRWA school yesterday.
There is a fundamental imbalance in this conflict, but it isn't the one you'll hear on the news. It is a moral one. One side targets civilians malevolently and the other side targets militants. Who is in the middle of it all? Real people. Poor Palestinians that are facing a humanitarian tragedy and Israelis who are living with the trauma of war.
Why? Because of an Iranian financed and sponsored group of warmongers that are using the civilian population to wage war and terror.
The vast majority of resources and efforts put forth in Gaza by Hamas have been to consolidate political control toward the goal of arming and militarizing this small strip of land and enhancing their own ability to make war, not enhancing the quality of life of the population.
Iran has been streaming unlimited stocks of weapons and ammunition, especially longer-range missiles, into this small territory in order to create this situation.
This made war inevitable. No country in the world can stand thousands (not an exaggeration) of missile strikes on its population centers on a regular basis for so many years. It is astonishing that it took this long to get to where we are now.
I am ranting so I'll stop, but this conflict is not between Israelis and Palestinians. It is between Israel and the terrorist organization that has destroyed Gaza in the name of war and hatred funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hamas is rumored to have built their bomb shelters and military command centers under Gaza's hospitals. Hamas is directly responsible for all of this misery and Iran who is financing and training and supporting their war efforts is ultimately the true antagonist.
I pray this war ends quickly and that it detracts from Hamas' ability to continue waging war in the future. Not that I think they will stop. I hope that we can work together with our Palestinian neighbors to rebuild in the aftermath of Hamas' war and to stop Iranians from playing with our lives and children and futures.
Before anything, I also think that it's very important to note the suffering of civilians. Civilians in the Gaza strip who are helpless in their little swath of hell called home. Civilians in southern Israel that have lived with Hamas rockets for seven years and continue to see war threaten their children.
Yesterday, Hamas militants launched rockets from the yard of a UNRWA school toward civilian population centers in southern Israel. The launches were followed immediately by an Israeli army strike and because this fighting is happening from within the centers of population in Gaza, the building collapsed and dozens of innocent civilians who were trying to flee this hell were killed. I think this incident is very representative of the general tragedy that's happening here.
Rather than speak broadly, I want to focus on the damage that's done to schools and kindergartens. For the last seven years, children in schools in the cities, towns, and villages of Southern Israel have been bombarded with missiles. In the last ten days a missile struck a kindergarten and would have killed all of the children in it, but they weren't at the kindergarten, they were in bomb shelters.
A few days later a missile struck an elementary school classroom in the morning hours where 45 students would have been studying, but they weren't, they were in bomb shelters.
The Israeli government as policy has instructed everyone in the vicinity of these rockets to stay inside, the "lucky" ones have bomb shelters to hide in, and the unlucky ones are told to try and avoid windows and hope for the best.
The mirror image of that is the Iranian-backed Hamas leadership which instructed (until they stopped talking to them completely) the Palestinian residents of Gaza to remain in the firing zones because that provides protection for the militants. I don't say this lightly and I don't think this can be overlooked. Hamas is using the Palestinian population as a weapon in this war, as a vehicle through which they can continue to target other civilians. There is a double tragedy and double crime there.
There is no doubt in my mind that when the IDF strikes a target it is aiming for the militant capacity to fire rockets into Israeli population centers and the terrorist infrastructure that supports it. There is also no doubt in my mind that when Hamas fires a Chinese-made Grad rocket with hundreds of metal pellets designed to rip through the flesh of whoever is in the vicinity of the missile, their intent is to kill as many innocent civilians as possible.
Further, that they fire from within places where women and children are concentrated because it is in their interest. They fire from schoolyards.
The fact that more people in Israel haven't died is not because of lack of motive, means, or malevolence, it is because people are in bomb shelters, people have fled the area, people have been dealing with these missiles for over seven years.
The fact that more people in Gaza haven't died is because Israel is trying to conserve civlians lives, though it's almost impossible considering the tactics used by Hamas and obviously didn't help the people in the UNRWA school yesterday.
There is a fundamental imbalance in this conflict, but it isn't the one you'll hear on the news. It is a moral one. One side targets civilians malevolently and the other side targets militants. Who is in the middle of it all? Real people. Poor Palestinians that are facing a humanitarian tragedy and Israelis who are living with the trauma of war.
Why? Because of an Iranian financed and sponsored group of warmongers that are using the civilian population to wage war and terror.
The vast majority of resources and efforts put forth in Gaza by Hamas have been to consolidate political control toward the goal of arming and militarizing this small strip of land and enhancing their own ability to make war, not enhancing the quality of life of the population.
Iran has been streaming unlimited stocks of weapons and ammunition, especially longer-range missiles, into this small territory in order to create this situation.
This made war inevitable. No country in the world can stand thousands (not an exaggeration) of missile strikes on its population centers on a regular basis for so many years. It is astonishing that it took this long to get to where we are now.
I am ranting so I'll stop, but this conflict is not between Israelis and Palestinians. It is between Israel and the terrorist organization that has destroyed Gaza in the name of war and hatred funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hamas is rumored to have built their bomb shelters and military command centers under Gaza's hospitals. Hamas is directly responsible for all of this misery and Iran who is financing and training and supporting their war efforts is ultimately the true antagonist.
I pray this war ends quickly and that it detracts from Hamas' ability to continue waging war in the future. Not that I think they will stop. I hope that we can work together with our Palestinian neighbors to rebuild in the aftermath of Hamas' war and to stop Iranians from playing with our lives and children and futures.