[McClatchy/Kansas City Star] Shashank Bengali - Israelis aren't blind to civilian deaths or to mass suffering in Gaza. However, Israelis support the war against Hamas by more than four to one. If you lived here, many say, you would too. Polls show that Jewish Israelis see the war as necessary and justified, despite the deaths in Gaza and massive destruction of Palestinian homes and property. The public attitude here is that there's no peaceful way to deal with a foe such as Hamas, which doesn't recognize Israel's existence and whose fighters have fired thousands of rockets into Israeli towns over the past eight years. "You can't compare by the number of people dying here and there," said Samuel Balmas, 41, from Tel Aviv, whose elderly father lives in southern Israel and has had rockets land within a few hundred yards of his house. "We didn't send bombs to them. They sent them to us first."
2009-01-16 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive