By Stan Goodenough
Mar 02, 2008
Gaza's terrorists are responsible for the harm they bring to their own people because they insist on shielding themselves behind civilians who get hurt or killed when Israel is forced to retaliate.
This is the position of the Israeli government, as spelled out to international journalists and diplomats Saturday evening, a few hours after the IDF mounted a series of pin point self-defense operations against Hamas and other terrorists in response to escalated rocket attacks from Gaza.
Photographs made available top journalists last week showed Kassam rockets being launched from the heart of densely-populated civilian areas in Gaza towns.
But despite Israel's long history of practicing unprecedented self-restraint in the face of the most brazen and cruel acts of violence perpetrated by the “Palestinians," Jerusalem does not really expect to be given a sympathetic hearing in the press.
The international community has already condemned the IDF response as excessive and disproportionate (see separate story).