‘Inhumane and unacceptable’
On Tuesday night, a rocket hit Jerusalem, part of a barrage of rockets from Gaza that set off warnings in Netanya, Kfar Saba, Ra’anana, and areas around Tel Aviv, including Rishon Letzion. Earlier that morning, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in an effort to stop weeks of rocket fire.
The rockets are no doubt a perverse “answer” by Gaza-based terrorists to a crisis that was precipitated, by all accounts, by murderers in their very own midst. Between the day that three Israeli teens were reported missing and July 8, 284 rockets were launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip. According to Israel, the objective of Protective Edge is to damage Hamas’s capabilities, destroy terror infrastructures directed against the state and its citizens, and, above all, “restore stability and quiet to the residents of Israel.”
Israel is no doubt bracing for the inevitable criticism of the operation, and renewed “debates” (condemnations by any other name) over its “disproportionate” use of power and the “targeting” of civilians.
And yet, as the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ noted this week in a statement, “the reality of living under the constant threat of rocket fire is inhumane and unacceptable.” No country would be expected to tolerate this sort of provocation. Even when they fall harmlessly into Israeli fields, or are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome system, rockets destroy property, terrify children, and cause Israel’s economy to grind to a halt.
Our thoughts are with all Israelis, from families living with the fear of the latest “Code Red” siren to soldiers forced yet again to the front lines. Together with the Greater MetroWest community, we join the federation in praying for “a swift and successful end to the operation so that peace will prevail for Israel.”
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