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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/36468/full/36468/israel-s-gaza-operation-a-painful-necessity/ <br /><br /> <b>Israel’s Gaza operation a painful necessity</b> <br /> Friday, January 2, 2009 | by <br /><br /><p>This is a war that had to happen.<br /><br /> With Hamas refusing to renew a cease-fire with Israel, with its lobbing hundreds of rockets into Israeli towns in recent weeks, Israel had no choice but to act in Gaza. <br /><br /> And act she did in defense of her people. Decisively and with deadly accuracy, the Israeli military destroyed much of Hamas’ infrastructure, dealing a severe blow to this terrorist gang. Hundreds of Hamas personnel died in the strikes. Scores of tunnels, through which Hamas smuggled munitions intended to kill Israelis, have been obliterated.<br /><br /> We shed no tears for Hamas.<br /><br /> Still, we cannot help but recoil at the loss of civilian life, an inevitable component of even the most carefully planned attack. Though most casualties have been among Hamas’ ranks, innocent men, women and children have been killed or wounded.<br /><br /> No one likes bloodshed or loss of life, especially of civilians. We Jews are sensitive to the suffering of ordinary people, Israeli and Palestinian.<br /><br /> But let us remember who caused this. It was Hamas that located its rocket launchers, depots and other military sites in the heart of civilian neighborhoods. It was Hamas that rejected calls to renew the cease-fire. It was Hamas that targeted Israeli civilians in hundreds of rocket attacks.<br /><br /> No nation on Earth would tolerate this.<br /><br /> To those who accuse Israel of brutality or of callous disregard to the suffering in Gaza, we would counter with these facts: <br /><br /> It is Israel that carefully planned to take out Hamas military sites with state-of-the-art pinpoint accuracy, thus minimizing collateral damage.<br /><br /> It is Israel that placed countless cell phone calls to Gaza residents warning them to stay away from Hamas installations in the days before the strikes.<br /><br /> It is Israel that is permitting tons of food, medicine and other aid to be trucked in to Gaza, even as the bombs fall. Imagine Hamas allowing emergency aid to pass into Israel following one of their deadly rocket attacks.<br /><br /> To readers who feel violence is never the correct path, we understand your feelings. War is pure horror. All human life is precious. We wish there was another way. But Israel’s actions are justifiable.<br /><br /> There is no guarantee that this Gaza operation will result in peace and security for Israel, no guarantee that Hamas will be rendered impotent. But nothing else has worked. Israel had to act.</p> <p> </p>

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