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War on Terror

Halutz suggests IDF could stop Kassam attacks

But recommends against doing so for fear of harming innocent 'Palestinians'


By Ryan Jones
January 11, 2006

IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz Monday appeared to place a higher value on the lives of ?Palestinian? civilians than on those of Israeli civilians when he suggested Israel has the ability to put an end to Gaza-based Kassam rocket attacks, but recommended against doing so for fear of harming innocent Arabs.

Dozens of Kassams have hit Israeli targets north and east of Gaza over the past week alone. Nearly 300 rockets have been fired from the Strip since Israel's ?disengagement? last August.

?In order to deal with the Kassams,? Halutz told journalists, ?we would need to breach various constraints that we have imposed upon ourselves, moral constraints and others, that we do not wish to breach, and I do not recommend that we do so.?

Israel has long prided itself on going to great lengths to avoid collateral damage in its war on Islamic terror, though doing so has failed to win the Jewish state any accolades from the international community or greater diplomatic freedom to defend its citizens.

Nor has that practice endeared the general ?Palestinian? public to Israel. Polls consistently show the vast majority of ?innocent? Arabs living under Palestinian Authority rule support the use of brutal terrorism against Israel's men, women and children.

Media commentator Michael Freund wrote in The Jerusalem Post that Halutz's ?moral calculus is as twisted as it is ineffective, because it essentially places a higher value on the lives of Palestinian civilians than on those of Israeli civilians.?

?Forced to choose between whom to endanger, the chief of staff has chosen the latter even though he is sworn to protect the former,? Freund continues.

Freund joined a chorus of security experts, including prime ministerial candidate Binyamin Netanyahu, in warning that Israel's current policies are encouraging the nation's enemies to continue attacking Jews secure in the knowledge that the IDF has been hamstrung by diplomatic and moral concerns.

What Israel's leaders seem to have forgotten, Freund opines, ?is that the military's primary responsibility is to ensure the safety and security of the nation and its citizens. That is its paramount obligation; it overrides all others.?

By imposing a ?dubious brand of morality on Israel's defense policy,? the nation's leaders have ?transformed Israel into the equivalent of a neighborhood high-school wimp who meekly avoids confronting those who torment him.?

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