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Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/09/22/israel-is-quite-right-to-pre-empt-an-onslaught/
Israel Is Quite Right to Pre-empt an Onslaught
(Telegraph-UK) Editorial - With ex-diplomats and academic experts filling the airwaves with warnings against a conflagration in the Middle East, some may believe their claims that Israel is responsible for anything and everything that its sworn enemies inflict upon the region. The truth is more or less the opposite. The Israel Defense Forces are determined to defeat Hizbullah, like Hamas before it, solely because these terrorist organizations pose a lethal threat to their own civilians. Too many in the West have played down the relentless rocket bombardment of northern Israel by Hizbullah, but the displaced populations of entire cities such as Kiryat Shmona cannot ignore it. Would we tolerate the forced evacuation of, say, Dover? Retaliation is necessary to deter such attacks - and it is also legitimate, even under a strict interpretation of international law. Targeting terrorists by detonating their pagers and walkie-talkies is both proportionate and precise. Hizbullah and Hamas are illegitimate terror networks bent on indiscriminate murder. They, like their Iranian sponsors, are driven by a genocidal ideology, one which seeks to transform the ancient religion of Islam into a death cult. Hizbullah is believed to possess 150,000 missiles, enough to inflict mass casualties by overwhelming Israel's Iron Dome defense system. Hence, Israel is quite right to pre-empt such an onslaught. Britain and other allies should applaud Israel's decisive action - for it is the only path to peace.