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Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14190/ilhan-omar-gaza-rockets
Ignorance and Bigotry on Gaza Rockets
(Gatestone Institute) Alan M. Dershowitz - All decent people should be outraged at the terrorist groups in Gaza that fired 698 rockets at Israeli civilians, killing four, injuring 234 and traumatizing thousands of innocent children. Imagine what other countries, including the U.S., would do if lethal rockets targeted their civilians. Yet Israel has responded with restraint. Many of the Palestinians killed and injured by Israeli efforts to stop the rocket rampage were terrorists or civilians who were put in harm's way by the terrorists. Israel ended its occupation of Gaza in 2005, when Israel removed every soldier and settler from that area. Gaza could have become Singapore on the Mediterranean, with its port and location. But Hamas decided to turn it instead into a large-scale rocket launcher. To use the "occupation" - there is no longer any occupation - as a justification for why "rockets must be fired" is to show both ignorance and bigotry. The world should recognize that if Israel's enemies stopped attacking its citizens, there would be peace. But if Israel stopped defending its citizens, there would be genocide. The writer is Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School.