March 13: Readers react to rockets in South

Any offensive by the IDF must be one of destroy, not contain.

By JERUSALEM POST READERS
Letters 521 (photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
Letters 521
(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
Sir, – The IDF Home Front Command, along with the heads of a number of local authorities in the South, decided on Saturday night to cancel school in towns and cities located up to 40 km. from the Gaza Strip, affecting approximately 200,000 children (“100 rockets fired at southern Israel after IDF targets two terrorist leaders,” March 11).
That we should still be in such a situation shows a lack of leadership and resolve, although it is interesting that Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, “We will not allow people to attack Israeli citizens.” Must be coming near to election time – or he has just forgotten about his retreat from Lebanon and Joseph’s Tomb, and his constant defeatist chatter.
Any offensive by the IDF must be one of destroy, not contain. There must be no end until our enemies are defeated so that our people can live their lives not in shelters but in their homes.
The world condemns us no matter what we do, so let’s give it something to really shout about.
EDITH OGNALL Netanya
Sir, – The prime minister vows to hit anyone responsible for firing rockets. The defense minister predicts that the “violence” will last but a few days. This is good to know, but these are just words.
If these two had their jobs back in the earlier years of the last decade, Palestinians would still be blowing up hotels in Israel proper and our lives would still consist of dodging bullets on the roads and stopping suicide bombers.
They need to either send the army to Gaza and take over, or your newspaper should stop reporting what they say, since it isn’t news anymore.
BARRY LYNN Efrat
Sir, – As rockets pound southern Israel, Defense Minister Barak says the IDF will strike anyone planning an attack.
The Israeli government has no other course than to launch an all-out attack on Gaza in order to clean up and clear out Hamas, and protect the Jewish people.
The longer the government waits, the more Jews will die.
FRED CROWN TAMIR Neveh Ilan
Sir, – In the first two days of the cross-border hostilities, more than 60 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel. Eight Israelis were wounded. Israel retaliated, as expected. At least 12 Palestinians were killed. One Palestinian life for every five rockets fired; one Israeli wounded for about every eight.
Do Palestinians believe their lives are so cheap and expendable that they will forfeit them for a few rocket launches? How does provoking retaliation and jeopardizing the lives of families and friends change anything? Has firing rockets in the off-chance of wounding or killing Israeli civilians made anybody’s lives better? Do the Palestinians have anything to show for it other than deaths and funerals, destruction and frustration?
Why do we, who proclaim our support for humanitarian rights for all people of Palestine and Israel, remain deathly silent as barrage after barrage of rockets is fired indiscriminately, while expressing outrage when bombs and bullets target those who launch the rockets? Have we made anybody’s life better? What do we have to show for our actions and words other than appearing bigoted and two-faced?
JUDY BAMBERGER O’Connor. Australia
Sir, – It is high time the government stopped acting to please the world and treated the defense of its citizens as its only priority. It is time to take off the kid gloves and advise those responsible for Gaza that one more attack on the citizens of Israel will result in the complete and utter destruction of all their utilities, because pinpoint accuracy by the Israel Air Force and IDF against rocket launchers, storage areas and construction facilities is a useless exercise.
It appears that world opinion is not concerned with human rights for Jews – as indeed it has never been – while hundreds of thousands of citizens of the South are under bombardment, schools and universities are closed and life is totally disrupted.
What other country would tolerate such tit for tat? To hell with world opinion. It will be against us whatever we do. Nobody will initiate any UN commission of investigation into how our daily lives are disrupted and people are maimed both physically and mentally.
Now is the time for action. We have to remind the world that Jews have human rights as does everybody else on the Earth.
JUDITH BARNET Jerusalem
Sir, – I don’t understand why we don’t bomb all the gasoline stations and the electric power plant in the Gaza Strip. This would end the mobility of the terrorists.
MIKE GAL Tel Aviv
Sir, – The future threat of Iran’s nuclear capability has taken over the media and imagination of all commentators and strategists.
“To attack or not to attack, that is the question.”
Yet the very real danger of Hamas missiles has closed the entire southern portion of Israel.
Schools are closed and life is anything but normal, to say the least.
What’s the government doing about ridding us of this real danger? How long must we wait for a clear and precise retaliatory strike to end the reign of terror once and for all? Ariel Sharon, where are you when we need you?
STUART PILICHOWSKI Mevaseret Zion
Sir, – Reading the sub-headline in your lead story of March 11 – “At least 15 Gazans killed... including militant released in Schalit deal” – I had to make sure this was The Jerusalem Post and not a UK newspaper.
Is it now your policy to call terrorists “militants?” If so, what a major, dramatic and unwelcome change of policy, kowtowing to the pressure of our antagonists.
HERTZEL KATZ Ramat Hasharon
Sir, – Even though I live outside the area where the rockets are falling, my heart and thoughts go out to the wounded from these terror attacks, and also to the non-wounded who are continually running to shelters.
My friends and I decided to say tehillim (psalms) for the people under barrage – a refua shlema (prayer for recovery) for the wounded, a refua hanefesh (prayer for emotional health) for all those living under these conditions, and for everyone’s safety.
I would like to suggest that many of your readers, and the general population, also add a kvittel tehillim (paragraph of psalms) for the mental and physical health of the people in the South, and also for their safety. It only takes a minute or two! We may not be as strong as the Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system, but we can do something! Who knows? Maybe it will help.
FRIEDA MANDEL Alon Shvut