RWS, if that person's report was even half true, you can be assured that it would be all over CNN and the European networks. Stop for a second and think. The Israeli are sweeping seven major cities, arresting between 1000 to 2000 combatants. That is done with a process of house to house search and destroy, and often met with resistance. Yet, the total number of Palestinians dead in a given day is between 15 to 35. Take the high number and you get 5 per city. Most of them armed snipers and terrorists. Israel and the IDF should be lauded, for minimizing in such unprecedented manner the number of civilian casualties. We inflicted ten times as many casualties on the Afghan, and I will not even mention the number of Iraqi civilian casualties during the gulf war. Arafat declared this war by his actions, the Palestinian should oust him and elect a team that will accept the existence of Israel rather than continuously incite to violence and call for a "million shahids onto Jerusalem".
It is not as if the IDF wantonly, rambled into those cities. When Zinni started his mission, the terrorists continued their daily attacks, and Israel did not retaliate for 11 days, then with the Seder massacre in Netanya, Sharon had to act. The blood of the few Palestinians non combatant hurt in the last week is staining Arafat's hand, not Israel's or Sharon's. Where is that person outrage on Palestinian parents sending their teenagers to commit suicided for a fistful of dollars?
RWS, since that person contacted you, you may want to send her this short missive and get her reaction to it.
Zeev |
