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Commentary;
The necessity of an operation like Cast Lead, now in its 7th day, came about through Israel’s misguided sense of morality: “merciful to the cruel, cruel to the merciful” which distinguishes an enemy’s “civilian population” from the operatives which hide, move about, launch rocket, mortar and sniper attacks from within the protection of “civilian human shields.” These “civilian human shields.” who by permitting and enabling missile launching and sniping operatives to use them, have established themselves as strategic weapons of warfare and thus constitute an integral part of an enemy military force. Cast Shield also came about as result of allowance of “Humanitarian Shipments” covering for weapons and ammunition deliveries as well as from past toleration of immense numbers of smuggling tunnels and from free passage of weaponry through an open crossing between Egypt and Gaza. All the while, the range of the smuggled-in, Chinese-made Grad – Katyusha rockets is a mere 7 km from Beit Shemesh.
