By Ryan Jones
May 11, 2006
The international community is keen to lay the blame for the current humanitarian situation in the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories solely on Israel, and the Jewish state's new defense minister, ultra-leftist Amir Peretz, seems only too happy to oblige.
According to a report issued by Physicians for Human Rights this week, Israel's military closures, curfews, checkpoints and its ongoing diplomatic efforts to isolate the Hamas regime are to blame for the mounting humanitarian crisis among the Palestinian Arabs. That assessment is reflective of general international sentiment.
Rather than defend Israel's right to protect its own people via such measures from relentless "Palestinian" efforts to murder them, Peretz Thursday took the side his nation's enemies and detractors in remarks made on Army Radio.
He reckoned it was Israel's responsibility to consider first the well-being of those who created this situation with their intransigence and aggression, rather than go to any length to provide security and stability for it's own people.
Nor was Peretz pleased with a more pro-active military responses to the "Palestinian" threat.
Retaliatory IDF artillery fire against terrorist rocket crews in northern Gaza needs to be reviewed, said the less-than-qualified defense minister.
Peretz will find support for that position from both international detractors who want Israel to stop fighting back, and from many of his own countrymen in the military and civilian spheres who feel the IDF could and should be doing much more.