Israel: Preparing for War

On December 27, after tensions increased after the ending of a six-month cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Israeli defense forces began airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. Reactions from the Israeli blogosphere have been supportive of the current military action and preliminary blog posts show that Israelis are gearing up for a long and difficult conflict ahead.

Israelity comments on the timing and the build up to the conflict:

Most folks, in the week between Christmas and New Years, chill out in Puerto Rico, visit family on the coast, or go skiing in Aspen. We Israelis go to war.

Operation Cast Lead (reminder to the IDF Spokesman: work on those titles) is no laughing matter. Borne out of no alternative to constant rocket attacks on its southern communities, the military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries – and so far, more rockets landing in Ashkelon, Sderot, Netivot and even Ashdod, some 25 miles away from Gaza.

I got an inkling that the operation was impending when my daughter came home from her police shift on Thursday and said she had been briefed about mobilizing in the South when the army attack began in order to keep calm in the communities where retaliation from Hamas was likely.

On Saturday night, however, she was still patrolling her usual areas around Jerusalem. Evidently, the response to Operation Cast Lead among the Palestinian population in the West Bank and around east Jerusalem was serious enough to keep police troops very busy.

“There’s all kinds of riots going on here,” she said on the phone around midnight, “so they can’t send us to the South.”

West Bank Mama notes the call up of Israeli soldiers:

IDF radio has announced that reserve soldiers are being called up now, what is known in Israel as Tzav Shmoneh. Already the yishuv email is starting with requests for those traveling to various places to bring “care packages” to soldiers. Not only do we have yishuv members being called up, but many have sons in the “regular” army.

The mothering instinct is kicking in everywhere.

I have just heard on the radio that families in the north, who unfortunately had to be evacuated from their homes during the second Lebanon war, are now giving out invitations to those in the south to come up to them to get away from the rockets.

And Aliyah! talks about the build up to the conflict:

So far, it has been handled just right. They waited and let those rockets fall while not doing a thing in retaliation. We sat by as more than 300 rockets and mortars landed among civilians in just 3 days, adding to those that fell in the days before and the more than 3,000 that had been launched at those civilian communities this year alone. The rockets fell on us as we treated in our hospitals Palestinians who were hit by Hamas rockets that mis-fired and fell among their own people. The rockets fell on us as convoys of aid, fuel, medical supplies and food made their way across our border and into Gaza.

Because we waited, two important things were won. First, justification for a much larger blow against the terrorists than simply going after a rocket-launcher here and one there. The latter strategy is not only ineffective but gives the international community a chance to spin the situation as a tit for tat equal responsibility for the situation. Clearly, when the attacks are coming consistently only from one direction, it cannot be spun as tit for tat. Even Abbas has said that Hamas is responsible and brought this on themselves. The second thing we won was the element of surprise.

More reactions from the Israeli blogosphere will be forthcoming, including further coverage from the various points-of-view involved in the current conflict. Keep checking the Global Voices special coverage page for more updates.

23 comments

  • Christian Soldier

    Mo Kharbat, I can only dream that someone would launch rockets into the U.S.!!!! you just dont seem to see the picture!!Your islamic faith is commiting suicide by attacking this country and do you think Obama is gonna do something for terrorists who are launching rockets at anything???????NO, I can answer for him. I can only wish that Israel would ask us for help!!I would gladly risk my life for that country in fighting these fascist terrorist. Onward christian soldiers fight! fight! kill! kill!Oh by the way I have four sons that I have talked to heavily about these muslim terrorist and they feel the same way I do now. We will keep making the bombs, its up to you to make us use them or NOT!

  • Benjamin:
    I’m a blogger and I’m born Israeli. Works fine by you?
    In addition, most of the people featured in the article are not even ‘settlers’ and so are the people under rocket fire from Hamas. Yael I come from Ashkelon. I have a big Family in Ashdod. The cities of Sderot, Netivot, Ofakim – none of these are in the west bank or Gaza strip, it is 100% non-disputable Israel.

    While dispute exist about west bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan are Israeli ground. You might oppose that, but hardly anyone in Israel does. Let’s not dive into it, that’s another issue.

    I’m what you called “Israelis who don’t have an escape valve and who see their only future being in the land where they were born.” So Lets continue.

    In the past 2 days I’ve been talking with a lot of people, both pro and con the operation. There have been some valid points from people, there have been some unacceptable points and mostly there have been so so so much ignorance even on pure history facts. (One of the commenters on this very site went so far as to argue Hamas never did a coup to seize control of Gaza…)

    Israel doesn’t do massacre, Israel doesn’t do a crime against humanity and Israel do not target civilians. According to the UN (which is constantly against Israel) out of 307 dead “only” 51 were civilians. This means the majority of dead ARE Hamas people.

    That said, I’m fully aware to the amount of civilian wounded and injured, and believe me when I tell you even people here in Israel are not comfortable with the sights. You won’t see most people saying “Good, they deserve it!” or something like that.

    For some reason, a lot of Arab/pro-arab comentators keep saying things like “They only soot rockets since you started the operation!” or “These rockets are home made and cause no damage!” or “Israel starve them for no reason so they shoot rockets out of disrepair!”

    All false.

    Israel left the Gaza strip completely. To the last settler. We also left there greenhouses that produced tons of food and was consumed both in Israel and exported. This was an excellent opportunity for the Palestinians to take over and produce the food for themselves (in reality they destroyed the greenhouses and looted the equipment)

    Gaze was FREE. Yes, FREE!

    Israel went outside and waited. It warned the PA (Gaza was ruled by Fatah’s PA back then) that now that we’re out, there is no excuses for rockets.

    Of course, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah’s Tanzim all fired rockets in order to claim the Israeli had run away and an insult.

    Hamas did won the elections in Gaza (mainly as protest vote against corrupt Fatah) and refused to denounce violence, recognize previous agreements and recognize Israel (conditions set by international community for recognizing its government). This cause the siege to begin by Israel, US and the EU, which refused to transfer aid and money to a well known terror organization.

    Shortly afterwards a civil war began in Gaza where Hamas slaughtered anyone related to Fatah, which only made most of the world realize how terroristic is the new regime. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Palestinian_civil_skirmishes for more details)

    The last 6 months ‘truce’ had ended last week. During the truce still thousands of rocker were fired, bringing the total number of rockets in the past year to over 3000! Since I’m from Ashkelon I’ve experienced this myself.

    The truce ended Wedensday and we had 80+ rockets per day!! – I remind you, this is before the operation. in a few days we had over 300 rockets falling on us and Israel did NOTHING but to warn Hamas.

    This rockets are not only ‘home-made’ simple rockets. All the ones reaching Ashkelon and north are Russian GRAD Rockets. they are properly made by Russian weapon factories and are everything but ‘home-made’. Same with mortars. This aren’t ‘home made’ mortars. These are real mortars smuggled to the strip in dozens of tunnels.

    After 8 years of constant shelling of rockets and mortars, and a past year with an un-felt truce of 3000+ rockets, Israel said Enough is Enough. And rightly so.

    Israel is FAR FAR FAR stronger then Hamas. We have patience and we do want peace, but we cannot tolerate 80 missiles a day!! No one will!! Israel is doing now all it can to obliterate anything that is Hamas in the strip. All police, all armed forces, all Hamas related personnel – they are all legitimate targets (and not civilian).

    Hamas had building inside civilian population. Hamas had Rockets storages inside civilian population. Hamas even FIRES rockets from within civilian population. THAT is using human shields! And since the Geneva convention (which the Hamas don’t even care about, mind you) approves firing on these as military targets – Israel decided this time the gloves are off – and they bombed those places too.

    I’m sorry for civilians hurt but the blame is 100% on Hamas. And you’ll notice half the world agrees with that as well. You are welcome to search YouTube and see how Hamas fire rockets from schools and houses’ roofs. The blood of the surrounded civilians is totally on their hands.

    Hamas has to understand that they can NEVER compete with israel on who can do the most damage. Israel can win EVERYTIME. This means that the only way is to TALK. Talk talk talk. Agree, disagree, whatever. But it has no milli-chance of beating Israel militarily.

    The only reasonable objective of the shooting by Hamas is to make Israel retaliate, kill people and use their bodies and Propaganda in the media “look what the evil Zionist are doing to us!!” This means Hamas is deliberately wants innocent Palestinians killed. Blood Merchants.

    Hamas is even making things worse by not saying Ok, lets talk. It just announcing it will KEEP firing rockets and wants Israel to attack even more by getting inside on the ground.

    Hamas have ABSOLUTELY no care for Palestinian lives. All it cares about is the “resistance” and his “honor” as mujaheedin. For all it cares, all the Palestinians will die as long as they die fighting. You see? It doesn’t want pals to *live in peace* it wants them *to die fighting*!

    And it certainly looks like he’s about to get his way, with all of you supporting it.

  • […] is the second comment I desiced to bring here after commenting it there. In the past 2 days I’ve been talking with a lot of people, both pro and con the operation. […]

  • Jack, none of the bloggers are born in Israel.
    Benjamin,

    How do you know that? Did you go through each blog and verify where the bloggers were born?

    I think the opinions and perspectives of people who deliberately choose to live in a war zone are tainted by their irrational behavior.

    The problem with that argument is that it describes the entire country as being a warzone. That is simply incorrect. You have a better chance of being killed in an automobile accident than a terrorist incident. Which is no different than living in the U.S.

    As Civax says many of the people involved here live in places that are indisputed Israel. To suggest that they do not have a right to live in peace is simply wrong.

    But let’s go back to your comment:

    The issue of legality is simple: The Geneva Conventions prohibit the movement of a country’s citizenry into another land it occupies. “West Bank Mama” is a self-declared illegal settler who has absolutely no legal right to live in her house, no legal right to restitution if she needs to be removed from it to make peace. Israelis on the Golan are illegal settlers, too. Israelis in Ariel, French Hill and any of the other “neighborhoods” of East Jerusalem are illegal settlers. Israel uses them and their children as human shields.

    That is a blanket statement that is not applicable in the broad fashion in which you are trying to apply it. Would you care to show us where WestBankMama says that she is an illegal settler.

    Or maybe we should discuss how the Ottoman Empire was carved into pieces and countries were created out of nothing. What is the justification for allowing these countries to continue to exist. There are very few hard and fast rules here.

    Mexico attacking U.S. border towns? Talk about “straw man.”

    I am asking a legitimate question. What do you think would happen. How would the U.S. respond.

    Jack, if you are going to mention the ’straw man argument’ at least do us the favour of finding out what one is before coming here and spouting off. Here’s a clue: http://is.gd/2oA6

    Gee Mike, thanks for adding to the conversation. It is good to know that someone is paying attention to the small and important details. If I had the time I might provide links that are a bit different from Wikipedia, but I just don’t care. Fortunately you’ll be here to help me out. ;)

  • jay kactuz

    This is 100% the fault of the Palestinians. They teach hate from the crib and want to kill every man, woman and children in Israel. What Israel is doing is 100% justified.

    I think Golda Meyer (spelling?) said it best: “I can forgive the Palestinians for what they do to us, but not what they make us do to them.”

    The Palestians are just tools that Muslim extremists use to fight Israel. They are willing fools, that drink the milk of hate from their mother’s breats. Muslims extremists don’t care about the people of Gaza — in fact, the more that are killed, the better for them.

    Israel is doing what it has to do, and maybe not doing enough. Of course, Muslims demand standards of conduct for Israel that they never would apply to themselves. Look at Islamic societies. Look how Muslim governments treat their people. Need I say more?

    Hassan, you and your people are just pawns, but willing ignorant pawns. You believe anything your leaders tell you and never think for yourselves.

    Oh by the way, Muslims always say that Mohammad attacked “in self defense” so I guess it is OK for Israel to attack also. I assume you agree. Ha! Or maybe the Jews should expel all non-Jews from historic Judah…. Isn’t that what Mohammad did to Christians and Jews in Arabia?

    Or is attacking, killing and self-defense ok for Mohammad, but not for others?

    Please explain….

    Kactuz

  • Annette

    Wow, little christian soldier…wow.

    You may want to do some research in history, and you may find out that the State of Israel didn’t come into existence until 1948.
    You know, before you start throwing bombs and stuff. You may also want to instruct your 4 boys to actually learn some history, before they go into your same hysterics about Islam.
    Just imagine, whatever city/town you live in – some outside force insulates you. They decide whether or not you can leave your town – in fact, they put up some humungous fence, just so they can control you. Then they decide to keep the ‘doors’ closed, so no food can come in. Your job? If it happened to be at the next town over? Well, you just lost it, ’cause that same outside force would not let you leave.
    Now, with all your sons, all your fantasies of violence, tell me, what would you do?
    What if the ‘outside forces’ were Christian, like you are? Again, what would you do??

    Idiot.

  • Hope

    This is unbelievable. How could anyone in their right mind would say it is 100% justified for the Israelis? It is absolutely nonsense! The Palestinians are only claiming their rights as the rightful owner of their country.
    I think civax should really check this out before claiming to know the right statistics of the killings for the past decades and not just during this recent attacks. http://www.ifamericansknew.org/

  • Uff… Look, we can go back in time and talk who has more justice, but this is what this region had for the past years and it doesn’t bring us any solution.

    Nobody denies the map of ’48 but that map had changed because of ARAB aggression (again and again and again…).

    If there to ever be peace Palestinians must realize their dream of taking over all the land will remain just that- a dream. It will NEVER happen. NEVER.

    Just like Israelis are realistic enough not to want the land of all the ancient Kingdom of Israel back, which was way bigger than current state of Israel. (And you see most Israelis don’t even use this card of “we were here first” just cause it’s not helpful)

    There will be 2 states, and they will roughly be the sizes they are now. We can get that and work from here or keep fighting endlessly.

  • Jack

    How do you know that? Did you go through each blog and verify where the bloggers were born?

    Actually I did. I’m wasting my time here if the basic facts are not verified before they are challenged.

    That is a blanket statement that is not applicable in the broad fashion in which you are trying to apply it. Would you care to show us where WestBankMama says that she is an illegal settler.

    On her blog!

    Thanks for your contribution civax. You’ve got an incorrect history, but I’ll attribute that to the Israeli education system.

    No more from me.

  • Benjamin, would you please bring up the points where you believe I’m incorrect? If I have my history wrong I would like to know that, and it should be the same for you.

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