In Moshav Yated Journal, Isabel Kershner of the New York Times reports:
According to the Israeli military, some 3,300 rockets and mortar shells were launched from Gaza at southern Israel in 2008, compared with fewer than 300 since the end of the war.
So then you wouldn’t be surprised to learn:
“People scoffed†at the Goldstone report, said Sasson Sara, the owner of a newspaper store in Sderot, the border town hit by thousands of rockets. “What does he understand? He sits in an air-conditioned room and he writes.â€
Yafa Malka, a glamorously made-up Sderot hairdresser, said she felt “pain and humiliation†when she heard about the report.
“I am very sorry for all those who were killed in Gaza,†Ms. Malka said, “but I expect my country to defend me no matter how.â€
Imagine that, the UN (Human Rights Council) considers it scandalous (not to mention illegal) for Israel to defend its citizens.
This was essentially the message of Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, last week:
The Goldstone Report goes further than Ahmadinejad and the Holocaust deniers by stripping the Jews not only of the ability and the need but of the right to defend themselves. If a country can be pummeled by thousands of rockets and still not be justified in protecting its inhabitants, then at issue is not the methods by which that country survives but whether it can survive at all. But more insidiously, the report does not only hamstring Israel; it portrays the Jews as the deliberate murderers of innocents–as Nazis. And a Nazi state not only lacks the need and right to defend itself; it must rather be destroyed.
Matthew Yglesias, of course, willfully misinterprets Oren. (via memeorandum) The rules of war, which are routinely invoked when Israel defends itself seem tailored (and applied) only to prevent Israel’s self defense. Rarely are they ever invoked in reaction to countries who completely ignore them.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
