Turn the lights off in Gaza!

In the past couple months, thousands of Kassam rockets have landed on Sderot and its surroundings (don't forget that Sderot is inside the Green Line). Kassams have been falling non-stop on schools, hospitals and homes since the Israel government disengaged form Gaza in the summer of 2005. For two years, the Arabs of Gaza have been free from any Israeli occupation and were even given originally a built-in economy: the famrs and greehouses left behind by the expelled inhabitants of Gush Katif and the other Jewish towns of Gaza. Immediately after Israel pulled out, Arab hordes desecrated the synagogues that were left behind, smashed the greenhouses instead of using them and using the farms as terrorist training camps, apparently getting the whole 'beating their swords into plowshares' wrong. Instead of working to improve the conditions of their suffering people, Hamas and Fatah set out training terrorists, even allowing the streets to overflow with sewage since the pipes were used to make rockets. With this colossal Arab failure to build a normal society in mind, think about the dangers of handing over Judea, Samaria and half of Jerusalem to these same people. Remember the desecration of Joseph's tomb and the illegal destruction on the Temple Mount and think again about giving the Palestinians control over key Jewish and Christian holy sites.

Despite the constant dangers for the people of Sderot, Israel is still hesitant to shut off the energy in Gaza, which comes from Israel, along with water, food, TV and radio, the very country that Hamas and Fatah want to destroy (!). Israel is worried that turning off the elctricity in Gaza is a form of collective punishment, which of course is immoral. The opposite of collective punishment is targeted killings, something which Israel has carried out against many terrorist leaders like Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (may his name be accursed), which is of course also immoral. Collective punishment and targeted killings are immoral- I'm starting to think that its the part about Jews defending themselves that the world thinks is immoral.

Imagine that your neighbour is constantly firing a machine gun at your house; would you even hesitate for a second to turn off his lights? And yet this is what the people of Sderot have to endure every single day. We were told that the Palestinian people elected Hamas democratically and therefore we should recognize the will of the people, no matter how much we disagree. Fine, they chose Hamas, chose rockets, chose murder and mayhem and Israel should repay them in kind. They made their bed and now must be forced to sleep in it. Shut off electricity, water, don't let any food go into Gaza, force them out, stop the TV and radio signals, bring Gaza to its knees until Hamas surrenders and the missile attacks stop. Collective punishment may be against international law but we needn't worry if we know that there is a higher law than that: basic law. The law that mandates that you survive and defend yourself supercedes any foolish notion that Israel must take every Kassam attack and turn the other cheek.

Collective punishment didn't seem so bad when the Allies destroyed Dresden, liquified Tokyo and bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki out of existence. And yet, this is the kind of existential threat that Israel is facing. It is every state's responsibility to guarantee the safety and security of its citizens, something that Olmert and his corrupt cronies have neglected to do. Call in the jets- warn Gaza's population that they have 48 hours to stop the rocket attacks or leave and if they don't stop, turn Gaza into a parking lot. Expel all the inhabitants of every village that is used as a base for rocket attacks. 'I am my brother's keeper'- if you don't want to face the consequences, prevent your home form being used as a terrorist launch site or leave. The time for mercy has passed. Israel must retaliate and retaliate harshly. 'Measure for measure', 'eye for an eye'. Force is the only language that is understood in the Middle-East and force is the language that we must learn. Turn off the lights! Let them sit in the dark until Israelis don't have to be constantly ready to run to the miklatim, shelters. If not, carpet-bomb Gaza. Anything, as long as Sderot will no longer be bombarded.

Cross-posted from For Zion's Sake