Israel Picks Up the Phone to Avoid Deaths

I found an interesting piece on ABC news, on its November 19th evening telecast and also found online.

Israel has subscribed to the practice of destroying the houses of known terrorists and the families of sucide bombers as a deterrent for future terrorist actions or punishment for already completed bombings. In this latest particular instance, Israel sought to destroy the home of the "militia leader" (read: terorist) Mohammed Baroud. (Baroud is a member of the Popular Resistance Committee, a terrorist militia which participated in the abduction of Israel Cpl. Gilad Shalit and frequently fires Qassam missiles into southern Israel.) In doing so, Israel called Baroud, informed him of its plan and gave him a half hour to evacuate and allow the surrounding area to be cleared so as to avoid an civilian casualties.

What did Baroud do? In a brazen, cunning manuever, he called, via cell phone and by way of screaming from the roof of his house, on his fellow Palestinians to serve as human shields and deter the Israelis from firing on his house. He essentially told the Israelis thanks for the warning to evacuate so no innocents will be killed, but I'm actually going to do the opposite and invite all my friends over and put them in harm's way as a means to put pressure on you.

The Israeli military was forced to postpone the bombing. As an army sokesman said "This is definitely a problem. The reason why we warn ahead is to avoid innocent injuries. Instead, they are using the warning to do what they did yesterday. We'll see how we can deal with it."

I bring this story up not debate the merits of Israel's practice of destroying the homes of terrorists. Nor do I wish to discuss whether this can be viewed as a Palestinian victory. Rather, I choose to focus on one important, but possibly overlooked fact: Israel called Baroud before it intended to destroy his house, in order to prevent him and others from being killed. Israel is at war with the likes of Baroud, but in the rough and tumble Middle East, Israel still finds the time (or is forced due to one-sided international pressure) to warn its sworn enemies of its military actions. It did the same in Lebanon, showering the inhabitants of Southern Lebanon with leaflets warning of impending strikes. Does Hamas make a phone call to Egged when it plans a suicide bombing? Did Hezbollah warn the residents of Kiryat Shemona of its missle strikes? Does the Popular Resistance Committee call into Sderot when it fires its (wildly inaccurate and deadly) Qassam rockets?

I do not mean to draw a moral equivalency between the Palestinian attacks and the Israel military actions. Not at all. My point is much more simple: Israel calls its enemy before its pinpoint airstrikes so as to avoid civilian deaths; Palestinian terrorists give no such warning so as to kill and maim as many Israelis as possible. In the ongoing warping and overlooking of facts in the Middle East struggle, this must not go unnoticed.

Happy Thanksgiving.