On the Gaza situation

Jason Koutsoukis,Fairfax’s relatively new correspondent in the middle east described to temporary Melbourne ABC host Waleed Aly that he (Koutsoukis) had been sitting in Sderot when the café owner came over and warned Koutsoukis and his group that they had 15 seconds to get to an air raid shelter.  A Kassam missile was on it’s way from Gaza.

Exactly.  As I told Sunday’s rally for Israel that situation of living under the terror of Hamas rocket fire was the very scenario that Australians needed to understand if they were to put themselves in the shoes of an ordinary Israeli.

Understandably Israeli spokesman immersed in the conflict under emphasised this divide of understanding. 

When Hamas broke the cease fire 10 days ago they introduced military grade missiles called the Grad and Katyusha, to those that were being fired into Israeli towns and cities.  Iran, which has orcastrated this conflict and effectively controls Hamas, supplied these higher grade missiles.  So the Hamas terrorist organisation is now able to bring 750,000 people in southern Israel into Hamas’s range.  These longer range missiles have exploded in kindergartens, primary and high schools all of which were evacuated in Ashdod (population 230,000) and Beersheba (180,000).   So while the Israeli Defence Force are trying to suppress these missiles the ordinary Israeli in the south must go to an air raid shelter within 15-45 seconds, 30 or 40 times a day, every time the terrorists fire a missile.

Imagine what Australians would do if this was happening here.  Imagine if terrorists over the last few years had been shooting  missiles from Footscray at the cities of Port Phillip and Yarra (the equivalent of the Israeli towns of Sderot and Netivot).  They have been hit by between 6,000 -8,000 mortars and missiles over the last 4 years.  Now, they (Hamas) have decided to shoot their Iranian bombs into Israeli cities as far away as cities of Geelong and Casey (the equivalent Ashdod and Beersheba).

Hamas’s leadership hides in Iranian designed bunkers in Gaza leaving their civilians without air raid shelters.   By contrast the only reason there have not been hundreds killed in Israel is the careful, systematic, early warning system and air raid bunkers that have been prepared for the civilian population.   Israel needs to belabour this comparison because ordinary Australians like other westerns can not imagine the comparative situation of people living in southern Israel.

It is the pure emotionalism of the western media coverage of civilian deaths in Gaza that the bastards in Hamas are relying on to save their political hides.  They hope that the terrible deaths of the minority killed accidentally in Gaza will force international public opinion and then western governments to force a cease fire.  Built on the corpses of Palestinian civilians Hamas hopes to use western opinion to close down the Israeli defence operation while they still have the power to shoot missiles and hence hold the entire south of Israel in their power.  Meanwhile back in Canberra we can be grateful that our new government has not succumb to this Hamas game plan. 

We should carefully  note that unlike certain European leaders, Rudd’s ultimate diplomatic solution did not call for an immediate ceasefire. Anyone who doubted Acting Prime Minister, Julia Gillard or Kevin Rudd’s credentials on Israel will be silenced by their firmness during these last days.