To the Regime: Stop Apologizing for Israel’s Legitimate Right to Self-Defense

The cloaking of sanctions against Gaza, i.e. reduction in provision of Israeli power and other supplies, by Israel’s current regime as a continuation of “disengagement” is nothing less than apologetics for Israel’s legitimate, inalienable rights as a sovereign nation to defend itself and to secure it’s people and it’s sacred national land. Any sovereign nation, on its own land, has this inherent national entitlement.

Here are pertinent quotes from the Jerusalem Post opinion piece No Security, No Power which make this fundamental point;

…Those who berate Israel for alleged collective punishment are apparently not incensed by the rocketing and routine terrorization of ordinary Israelis. Are Kassams aimed at kindergartens not in the category of collective punishment? Do Sderot’s children not deserve protection from indiscriminate assault?

…Those who turn a blind eye to Gaza’s transgressions cannot appoint themselves advocates for its citizenry.

Little purpose is served by hiding behind “continuing disengagement” terminology. Equivocations and euphemisms imply admission of guilt. Israel should not undercut its own case with superfluous apologetics. It is much more effective to tell it like it is and clearly affirm that this country’s rights to self-defense are not less legitimate or inferior to others’.

The issue of sanctions, reduction or elimination of electric power and other services to Gaza begs the question, in retrospect, of whether any logical premise ever existed for ousting the Jews from Gush Katif.

In short, there was never even an articulate, logical premise provided for the “disengagement”, for separation from Gaza, i.e. “it would bring an end to the missile and mortar barrages,” “to eliminate the human and economic cost of stationing the IDF to protect the Jews.”

In reality, the barrages to which Neve Dekalim and the Jewish towns were subjected were merely transferred and intensified upon Sderot and the other Negev towns in proximity to Gaza and the IDF remains heavily stationed just beyond Gaza’s perimeters and to this day carries out almost continuous actions against missile-launching terrorists inside Gaza who often set up launching bases in former Jewish towns.

In fact, the term “disengagement” applied to the August, 2005 events in Gaza and the four Shomron towns is itself bogus and a misnomer. The Sharon/Olmert regimes’ sole purpose was to rob, expel, persecute and shatter the lives of thousands of Jewish residents, over 9,000 former residents of both Gaza and 4 Shomron towns as a precedent for future Regime expulsion plans for over 200,000 Jews living in Yehuda and the Shomron. MB