The other day, Charles noted that PM Netanyahu stated the obvious; that Israel’s security fence was preventing terror.
That’s part of it. But there’s a bigger reason that there’s little terror coming from the Fatah ruled areas: Israel destroyed much of the terror infrastructure there during Operations Defensive Shield. As former Defense Minister Moshe Arens wrote last year (h/t Noah Pollak):
As long as Israel seemed unable to find an effective answer to Palestinian terror [during the second intifada], the defeatists in our ranks claimed that terror could not be defeated by force, while the more cautious argued that terror could not be defeated by the use of force alone. The implication was that Israel had no choice but to concede to at least some of the terrorists’ demands-that they must be given a “political horizon.”
But once the Israel Defense Forces and the security services began to seriously tackle Palestinian terror, following the massacre at the Park Hotel in Netanya in the spring of 2002, it quickly became clear that terror could be defeated by force. As a matter of fact, it could be defeated only by the use of force. The terrorists view any hints of Israeli willingness to give in to a portion of their essentially limitless demands as a sign of weakness, which only serves to encourage further acts of terror.
But Israel’s victory over Palestinian terror, which put an end to the daily bouts of suicide bombings, also induced amnesia in the minds of some of Israel’s leaders. The lesson was quickly forgotten.
It’s nice that the New York Times and others promote the economic progress made by the Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria. However they never acknowledge that it wouldn’t have been possible if Arafat (or his successors) were still running suicide factories there. Israel’s military victory made the economic progress possible.
Regardless of what Israel does, whether it goes to war to stop terror or builds a wall, the world still complains. One gets the feeling that it isn’t the lack of peace that bothers them, but that Israel has the gall to defend itself.
In response to the “Aqsa intifada” Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield to destroy the terror infrastructure that Arafat fostered even as he talked peace. The nadir of world reaction to Israel’s effort to defend itself came when Israel was accused of massacring civilians in Jenin in the spring of 2002. The charge was false and was soon disproved but not before the UN and much of the media accepted the charge as false fact.
As part of Israel’s response to the Arafat initiated terror, it started to build a wall to protect itself from infiltrators. And of course the PA took Israel to the International Court of “Justice” to issue a non-binding ruling finding the fence to be illegal under “international law.”
Then in 2006 after Hezbollah breached the international border and kidnapped and killed Israeli soldiers, Israel launched a retaliatory war to move Hezbollah away from its northern border. Again calls went out that Israel was unnecessarily killing civilians. The nature of the media bias was so great that Marvin Kalb acknowledged that the media was a factor in deciding the war against Israel.
Finally a half year ago, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead to stop the rocket attacks coming from Gaza. Now we see, that the UN has launched an investigation into Israeli war crimes. Supported by “Human Rights” organizations and credulous media who accept any hearsay of Israeli misdeed as a verdict of guilty, no doubt the UN will condemn Israel. The UN really doesn’t care that Israel was defending its citizens.
This is the clear pattern. Israel is the only country in the world that is deemed unfit to defend itself. If Israel acts in its own defense it is guilty. Of something.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
