Operation Defensive Shield in Jenin
(Updated April 2007)
Like any democracy, Israel not only
has a right to defend its citizens - it has
a moral obligation to protect its women, children
and other civilians from homicide bombers
who would kill a teenager who goes to the
supermarket or a child who goes for a walk.
Like America, Israel defends
its citizens from terrorists.
In Israel, suicide
bombers have terrorized the
civilian population for the last 18 months.
Indeed, we wish that Yasser
Arafat had not
refused the offer of a Palestinian state
and encouraged terrorism. After all, Israel
wants peace and wants there to be a Palestinian
state - once the Palestinians recognize
Israel's right to exist with their actions,
and not just their words. However, when
faced with terrorism, Israeli forces went
into Jenin to root out one of the principal
terrorist bases.
Sadly, Arafat's own Palestinian
Authority documents call Jenin
the “suiciders capital.” The camp has a long history as a base for
extremists and no less than 28 suicide attacks
were launched from this terror nest during
the recent wave of violence. What would
America do if it knew where to find terrorists
responsible for blowing up pizzerias, discos,
grocery stores, and religious celebrations?
Israel agreed to a U.S.-brokered cease-fire
in the hope the Palestinians would do the
same and return to the bargaining table, but
Yasser Arafat rejected the American plan and
the terrorists from Jenin escalated their
violent attacks.
Israel has acknowledged that some Palestinians
were killed, but the majority were gunmen.
Any civilian casualty is a tragedy, but American
forces have also discovered that it is virtually
impossible to completely avoid them when terrorists
used civilians as shields as the Palestinians
did in Jenin.
"I see no evidence that would support
a massacre took place," said Secretary
of State Colin
Powell. Indeed, there was no
massacre in Jenin -- a fact confirmed by Human
Rights Watch.
How is peace possible when Palestinian terrorists
use refugees as shields, and refugees are
forced to allow terrorists to establish bases
in their homes, their churches, their schools,
and their communities?
While trying to avoid endangering civilians,
23 Israeli soldiers were killed in bitter
combat in Jenin, where Palestinian terrorists
used bombs, grenades, booby-traps and machine
guns to turn the camp into a war zone. Much
of the destruction was caused by Palestinian
bombs.
Israel prefers to take diplomatic action
at the negotiating table, but when forced
to defend the freedom of its citizens, the
military will attack military targets and
terrorists. By contrast, Palestinian terrorists
target restaurants, places of worship, schools
and busy streets - with many attacks taking
place on the Sabbath. Israel's goal is to
eliminate terrorism. The goal of the Palestinian
terrorists is to inflict as much pain on as
many civilians as possible.
There is no moral equivalence between terrorists
and the people fighting them. To suggest otherwise
would be similar to comparing the arsonist
who sets a fire with the firefighter who puts
the fire out.
Jenin was not destroyed. The Israeli operation
was conducted in a limited area of the refugee
camp, which itself comprises a small fraction
of the city. TV pictures create a distorted
image of the extent of the damage.
The hypocrisy of the UN and others concerned
about Jenin is evident from the fact that
they never condemn or investigate the repeated
massacres by Palestinian homicide bombers.
Israel has nothing to hide and invited an
impartial fact-finding team to visit Jenin.
The historical animosity of UN bodies toward
Israel raises questions about the fairness
of its representatives as does the exclusion
of military and counterterrorism experts.
In fact, one delegate appointed to the UN
team previously compared a Star
of David with
a swastika.
Palestinians have learned from fabricating
atrocities stories in the past that a false claim against
Israel will get immediate media attention and attract sympathy
for their cause. And the corrections that inevitably follow
are rarely seen, read, or noticed.
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