First Lesson Of Gaza War: Maintain The Blockade

14
>>Follow Matzav On Whatsapp!<<

gaza-blockadeBy Moshe Phillips and Benyamin Korn

During the first 24 hours of the Gaza war, Palestinian terrorists fired more than two hundred rockets into Israel. Yet only one Israeli was wounded, and none were killed. How is that possible?

When Israel fires missiles at enemy targets, they strike with pinpoint accuracy. Sometimes they hit a lone terrorist on a motorcycle, or a single, targeted apartment in the middle of a dense cluster of apartment buildings.

Yet when Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian terror groups fire rockets into Israel, the vast majority land in empty fields or parking lots or other uninhabited sites.

The difference is not that the Israelis have better aim. The difference is that the Israelis have the right equipment, and the Palestinians don’t.

Israel has the sophisticated computer systems necessary to ensure that their missiles lock on the desired target. The Palestinians don’t have that technology.

The reason they don’t is because of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

That’s right, the much-maligned Israeli blockade–the focus of so much griping by the Arabs, by Palestinian support groups around the world, by the United Nations and even by the Obama administration. That blockade. It’s working.

Israel took a lot of heat for intercepting the Mavi Marmara, the ship of pro-Hamas extremists from Turkey and elsewhere that tried to bust the blockade of Gaza in 2010. In the aftermath of that episode, various groups adopted the blockade issue as their cause du jour.

In 2011, for example, a panel of five “independent human rights experts” for the United Nations declared that the blockade is “a flagrant contravention of international human rights law.” In 2012, the UN’s annual report on the Gaza situation called the blockade “collective punishment.” In 2013, the UN’s “humanitarian coordinator” for Gaza, James Rawley, claimed that “Gaza is becoming uninhabitable” because of the blockade. And just this part March, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency declared that the blockade “is illegal and must be lifted.”

The other usual suspects have chimed in as one might expect. Amnesty International has charged that the blockade is “suffocating Gaza.” Human Rights Watch has complained that the blockade is having “an awful effect.” The International Red Cross has declared the blockade to be a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Even the Obama administration, which one would have hoped would not fall in line with the knee-jerk Israel bashers of the world, has tried to get Israel to ease up on the blockade. “Gaza Blockade Untenable, U.S. Believes,” read the headline of an NBC News report back in 2010. “The Obama administration believes Israel’s blockade of Gaza is untenable and wants to see a new approach that would allow more supplies” into the territory, NBC reported.

That same week, Vice President Joe Biden told interviewer Charlie Rose, on Bloomberg TV: “We have put as much pressure and as much cajoling on Israel as we can to allow them to get building materials” and other forbidden items into Gaza. Biden seemed oblivious to the fact that many construction materials are what is known as dual-use items: in addition to their primary purpose, they can also be used for terrorist purposes. Concrete for the foundation of a building can also be used to make an arms-smuggling tunnel.

Fortunately, Israel resisted all this international pressure. It maintained the blockade. And as a result, Palestinian rocketeers without target-locating computers continue to fire their missiles into open fields instead of supermarkets and kindergartens.

Amnesty International and the rest owe Israel an apology. But we won’t hold our breath waiting for that. Instead, we’ll just carefully note whose advice has proved sound, and what lessons can be learned from this experience.

The first lesson from the Gaza war: Blockading the enemy works.

[The authors are members of the board of the Religious Zionists of America.]

{Matzav.com Newscenter}


14 COMMENTS

  1. I live in Southern Israel and we have run to the bomb shelter with our kids every night since the Operation began, I think the one and only reason the Hamas doesn’t manage to hit us is because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is protecting us, this land is “eretz asher eine Hashem Elokecha ba Mereishit hashana ad acharit Hashana” and there is no were else in the world I feel safer!

  2. It is great that a blockade works. It is also clearly a miracle that no Israeli has been killed. Everything is a test from G-d. One of the tests of this current war is if we will see His clear intervention. If we are able to have a conversation about how the rockets are falling on empty areas and forget to mention G-d’s miracles, we are failing the test. Perhaps the authors wrote this article for the secular public.

  3. A nice article and these are facts that no one can dispute, but there’s one all important …. and the most important point of all seemed left out – and that is ‘Henei Lo Yonum V’elo Yeshon Shomeir Yisroel’

  4. “The difference is that the Israelis have the right equipment*, and the Palestinians don’t*.

    Plus an immense amount of help from The One Above!

  5. I am disappointed in Matzav for posting this article. The authors are apparently religious Jews and yet in this article not once is Hashem’s name mentioned. To quote a few lines,

    “Yet only one Israeli was wounded, and none were killed. How is that possible?”

    “The difference is not that the Israelis have better aim. The difference is that the Israelis have the right equipment, and the Palestinians don’t.”

    The authors answer these questions with the following answer.

    “Israel has the sophisticated computer systems necessary to ensure that their missiles lock on the desired target. The Palestinians don’t have that technology.

    The reason they don’t is because of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.”

    Seemingly they forgot to mention ??? ???? ???? ?????? ?????? ?? ??? ????? but rather screamed the zionist motto of ??? ????? ???. I am saddened by this article and with the Matzav for reprinting it. I think that no more need be said.

  6. shmeditor’s note: “The difference is that the Israelis have the right equipment**, and the Palestinians don’t**.”

    **Plus an immense amount of help from The One Above!

  7. Hey buddy, u forgot 1point. The rockets have hit open fields and no injuries occurred because, listen to this; HASHEM decreed such. Not because of anything else.

  8. Sorry, but this article is missing a major point over here. And that is “Eretz Asher Tamid Einei Hashem Elockecha bah”, and “Eilah V’Rechev V’Eileh B’Susim, V’Anachnu b’Shem Hashem Elokeinu.” And in the Z’chus of all the Torah that is being learnt in Eretz Yisroel and abroad, and Klal Yisroel’s continuous tefillos and tehillim. Let us continue davening and learning for the well being of our brothers in Eretz Yisroel and may be zoche to Yeshuos, b’karov!!

  9. i dont like sounding to frum.. it makes no sence that no one was killed in the last 3 weeks off israel in west bank and hundreds of rockets. dont try to explain it!

  10. WRONG!!!!! the reason is because we are yidden and H-Shem watches over us. The longer we look for natural causes to explain our predicament the longer it will take for the geula to come.

  11. on matzav do you need to publish articles that make no mention of hk”bh by writers that are tzioynim. the only reason that most rockets have fallen in open areas is the shemirah of hk”bh whats a matter with you

Leave a Reply to straight Cancel reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here