Terrorists Should Be Treated as Such

Stand for Israel  |  May 22, 2019

Solidarity protest for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails
GAZA CITY, GAZA - DECEMBER 17: Women's branch of Islamic Jihad Movement gather to show their support to the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, in front of International Committee of the Red Cross office in Gaza City, Gaza on December 17, 2018. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

The Palestinian Authority continues to fund terrorists. Hamas and Islamic Jihad continue to launch rockets and incendiary devices into Israel. Yet the world keeps on blaming Israel for being attacked. Gatestone Institute’s Guy Milliere says it’s time to stop this nonsense and to hold the terrorist organizations accountable for the devastation they cause:

For years, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have placed most of their military installations under hospitals, schools and mosques, and have used their population as human shields to be able to show “dead babies” to television crews and blame Israel. Israel’s subsequent actions, each time Hamas attacked it, have weakened Hamas, but never crushed it. What is clear is that Israel evidently has no desire to govern or “colonize” Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and try to govern two million antagonistic people.

The result is that each time Hamas restores its capabilities, it becomes more dangerous than before.

Netanyahu doubtless realizes that it would be helpful if Hamas and Islamic Jihad were not there; he also doubtless realizes that there is no guarantee that whoever would succeed them might not be any better, and quite possibly worse.

There have been various suggestions how Israel should respond:

David M. Weinberg, vice-president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies, cautions that if deterrence does not become harsher, “a strategy of attrition designed to temporarily deter the enemy and bring about periods of quiet along Israel’s borders” will not be sufficient.

The author and politician Caroline Glick recommended “restoring the kilometer-wide buffer zone on the Gaza side of the border to block assaults on its border “, “destroying Hamas’s store of rockets, mortars and missiles”, and “carrying out strikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders”.

Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes, observing that Israel’s leaders shy away from victory, writes, “The only way for the conflict to be resolved is for one side to give up.”

Alan Baker, the legal scholar and Director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, has noted that, “The attacks on Israeli civilian populations by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and their use of civilian populations as human shields are crimes against humanity and war crimes “.

David French, an American journalist, wrote:

“[F]iring 600 rockets at civilian targets in a neighboring country is an act of war… and as such it grants the nation-state [Israel] the authority under the international law of armed conflict not just to disable the specific military assets used to carry it out but to destroy those who carried it out…

“It’s time for the world community to stop imposing these double standards on Israel, and start doing what international law requires: holding Hamas responsible for the devastation that results from Israel’s legal, necessary, and proper responses to its provocations. Only then will Hamas know that if it sows the wind, it could truly reap the whirlwind…”

In other words, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are terrorist organizations and should be treated as such.

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