This Ongoing War: A Blog: 13-Jun-06: The madness goes on

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

13-Jun-06: The madness goes on

The beleaguered parents of school-children in Sderot have had more than they can take. And look at what they're taking, day after day. On Monday, no fewer than 15 Qassam missiles - the kind the media love to call home-made, but which can rip a human being to pieces - landed in the town.

10 more fell short and landed in various parts of Gaza.

What's quite extraordinary about this story (what isn't?) is that Israel's military is now restrained by the government from taking counter-measures against these acts of war. Why? Politics, essentially. The press is reporting that the IDF will remain handcuffed at least until the results of an inquiry into Friday's Gaza beach deaths are submitted to Amir Peretz, the minister of defence and himself a Sderot resident, and to the military's Chief of Staff, Halutz. That's likely to be later today.

Meanwhile, this politically-inspired self-paralysis - suspending Israeli artillery fire and pinpoint assassinations of terrorists - allows those terrorists freedom to maneuver. It also takes the pressure off Hamas, who are behind the missile attacks, to desist.

At the Sha'ar Hanegev school that was hit by a Qassam on Sunday and its janitor injured (picture at right), parents are now boycotting the school. (The school has reinforced classrooms... but their construction has not yet been completed. Haaretz reports today on the widespread incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder among the town's children.) When people speak of this war being asymmetrical, think of the asymmetry between the utter freedom of action of the government sponsored terrorists on the Palestinian Arab side, and the political/moral highwire walked by the Israeli military in defending its people, its territory and its communities.

Think also of the asymmetry of the mainstream news reporting which almost totally ignores the constant bombardment of Israeli towns by the terrorists, but provides intense, photographically-rich coverage of the funerals of dead terrorists, and of street processions by wailing widows and children of murderous thugs. Mainstream news reporting is where most politicians get most of their opinions - so the implications of this assymetry are deeply disturbing... and self-perpetuating.

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