While the anti-Zionists are busily scurrying about thinking of ways to yet again chastise Israel for defending itself, it seems to me important that the public understand what this Jewish nation faces.
Despite considerable success in eliminating rocket caches in Gaza, many remain and many can still be fired at Israeli population centers, despite the truce. The Iron Dome has been an extraordinary success as an anti-missile system for short range rockets and as a deterrent for attacks. Yet even with a success rate of about 90 percent, a lot of damage and terror can be inflicted with the remaining ten percent.
The Gaza arsenal controlled by Hamas and the rockets possessed by Hezbollah now can reach every area of Israel. Syrian made M-302s have a range of 150 kilometers or 93 miles. The Iranian made FAJR-5 has a range of 75 kilometers or 47 miles and the Gazan made Qassam has a range of 20 kilometers or 12 miles.
The M-302, sometimes described as the Khaibar 1, is an anti-personnel and armor piercing dual purpose weapon. Its blasting head can be loaded with steel balls and prefabricated fragments. Most significantly, it is fuel-air capable, i.e. it can create a gas cloud fire burst yielding a vacuum that leads to suffocation and death. Some have described the M-302 as “the poor man’s nuclear bomb.”
In addition, on March 5, 2014 Iran tried to smuggle 40 M-302’s, 180 mortar shells, 400,000 assault rifle rounds into the Gaza strip reinforcing an already well stocked storehouse of weapons. This story of Iranian smuggling and capture was covered in the press, but it received scant attention and has not been mentioned during the course of the present war.
Although military experts sneer at the crudely made inaccurate katyusha missiles, they often overlook the fact that this weapon can be equipped with chemical weapons obviating the need for accuracy. An Israeli boy of about four years old was maimed and lost a leg from a katyusha that was armed with ball bearings on the warhead designed to destroy virtually anything in its path.
When the U.N. engages in debate on this Israel-Hamas war, it will invariably cite the “disproportionate” casualties in Gaza. What it won’t do is examine the threat Hamas and its arsenal of weapons poses to every Israeli citizen. Nor will it consider a nation under perpetual siege and a Hamas charter devoted to the elimination of the Jewish state.
Two years ago in a conversation with Secretary General Ban-ki Moon, I asked why Israel cannot be treated as merely another state in the United Nations, not better or worse. His response was silence – a deafening silence.
Israel is regarded as sui generis. It is a nation expected to accept attack without retaliation. It is a place where every misdeed is magnified and excoriated. And it is a land in which vile slander and lies are supposed to be accepted.
Hamas terrorists (excuse the redundancy) assassinated 18 so-called collaborators on the streets of Gaza, an object lesson to others. Where is the outrage? What will the Human Rights Commission say about the matter? If history and common sense are guides, the answer is “nothing.” If in some fantasy, there were role reversals and Israeli troops shot suspected collaborators without a trial, world opinion would scorn the government.
Israel is different – it is a nation of Jews that understand individual rights and the rule of law in a region that knows nor cares about the perpetuation of life and liberty. Maybe the U.N. has a point, even if it is not the point intended.
Herbert London is President of the London Center for Policy Research, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of the book The Transformational Decade (University Press of America). You can read all of Herb London’s commentaries atwww.londoncenter.org
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
