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Source: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/20/israelis-die-defend-british-media
How Many Israelis Must Die Before We Are "Allowed" to Defend Them?
(Guardian-UK) Hilik Bar - Hamas rockets are aimed at Israel's civilian population, and are unprovoked, sent with murderous intent. Since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge, Hamas has fired over 1,500 rockets into Israel. Israel's operation, meanwhile, is dedicated solely to removing the capacity of Hamas to fire missiles into Israeli population centers and dismantling its terror tunnels. To discuss the concept of proportionality, one must offset the number of deaths against the aims of the operation. In the context of putting a stop to intolerable, hourly murder attempts against an entire population, Israel's campaign is perfectly understandable. One wonders how the UK would react if a terror group overtook the Isle of Man and began raining missiles down on Britain. The coldhearted subtext is that Israelis must die in order for their military campaign to gain any sympathy. Yet no interviewer would dream of asking a British army general or politician why more Afghans died than British soldiers in the war there. As Israel's ambassador to the UK, Daniel Taub, said recently: "We don't have to apologize for Israelis not being killed." The writer, deputy speaker of the Knesset, is secretary general of the Israeli Labor party.