25-Oct-07: Surgery

One of this blog's two authors took part in an international conference this week in Washington DC on the critically important theme "Overcoming Extremism". The urgency of the subject unfortunately did not prevent a constant stream of ill-informed, reflexive criticism of the actions of Israel in what, for us Israelis, is not only a conference subject but an existential challenge in the most literal sense of that expression.

Israel's critics rarely, if ever, give credit for the extreme measures it takes to avoid unnecessary losses and harm in its ongoing war against the terrorists. Hence the importance of publicizing such events as effective as the one that occurred this morning.

As Haaretz reports, "the Israel Defense Forces killed two militants of Hamas' armed wing before dawn this morning (Thursday) east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. The source of the report is Hamas officials. "Palestinian paramedics said residents in the village of Abbassan called an ambulance to pick up the bodies of two members of the al-Qassam Brigades. The group said in a leaflet sent to reporters that an IDF elite unit penetrated an area east of the village and shot dead two stationed Hamas militants near the borders with Israel. The IDF confirmed it had fired on militants close to the Gaza security fence. On Wednesday two Palestinians were killed during an IDF strike in northern Gaza, Palestinian officials said. The IDF said ground forces hit militants who had launched three rockets from the Gaza town of Beit Hanun. Security officials from Hamas confirmed the target was a militant rocket squad. The militants [the word needs to be 'terrorists' and the distinction is an important one] killed in the strike were 18-year-old Mohammed Kalub and 20-year-old Abda Abu Ascar, both members of the militant group Islamic Jihad. The IDF strike comes one day after a senior Hamas government official and deputy commander of the Popular Resistance Committees was killed as the Israel Air Force targeted a car carrying a rocket launching crew in the Gaza Strip. The IDF often targets Palestinians trying to fire rockets from northern Gaza or planting explosives along the Gaza-Israel border."

Surgical precision. The absence of so-called collateral damage. Several more terrorists permanently disarmed. Global response: a yawn, while the ideologues and the politicians get on with excoriating the one country actually at risk on a daily basis in the ongoing terror war being waged against it, and that's doing something effective in response.